Like the yellow, pink, and blue irises that had been transplanted from
house to house over the years, the stories of poet Ted Kooser's family
had been handed down until, as his mother lay ill and dying, he felt an
urgency to write them down. With a poet's eye for detail, Kooser
captures the beauty of the landscape and the vibrancy of his mother's
Iowa family, the Mosers, in precise, evocative language. The center of
the family's love is Kooser's uncle, Elvy, a victim of cerebral palsy.
Elvy's joys are fishing, playing pinochle, and drinking soda from the
ice chest at his father's roadside Standard Oil station. Kooser's
grandparents, their kin, and the activities and pleasures of this
extended family spin out and around the armature of Elvy's blessed life.
Kooser has said that writing this book was the most important work he
has ever undertaken because it was his attempt to keep these beloved
people alive against the relentless erosion of time.
Ted Kooser, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and former U.S. poet
laureate, is Presidential Professor of the University of Nebraska. He is
the author of twelve books of poetry, including Valentines (Nebraska
2008) and The Blizzard Voices (available in a Bison Books edition).
His award-winning prose book, Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian
Alps, is also available in a Bison Books edition.
