![]() ![]() The grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, struggles with mental illness, has a caustic sense of humor and possesses a theatrical heart. The grandfather was a hell-raiser, a liar, a warm lover, an obsessive about model rockets and space. ![]() ![]() This is the essence of our oral histories and in them, Chabon argues, we can find the truth of who we think we are and who we want people to think we are.Ĭhabon never names his fictional grandfather, or his fictional grandmother, but they are brought to vivid life through his grandfather’s colorful stories, and, occasionally, stories told by others. Stories are passed around families, changing shape each time. Our memories are imperfect, after all, and we color the stories we tell others. I’ll save you time – the stories are made up.Ĭhabon, who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2001 for “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” likely would argue these stories always are made up, but they contain kernels of truth anyway. ![]() I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out whether the author’s real grandfather told him these stories and he just embellished them for the book, or if they are all made up. These family stories are the subject of Michael Chabon’s new book, “Moonglow,” a collection of deathbed stories told to a character named Michael Chabon by his grandfather. ![]()
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