Dadland

Title:

Dadland

Author:

Carew, Keggie

Subject:

Biography & Autobiography

Nonfiction

History

Military

Description:

As her father’s memory fails, a daughter explores his military past: “Part family memoir, part history book . . . Compelling and moving from start to finish” (Financial Times). One of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Ten Best Books of the Year For most of Keggie Carew’s life, she was kept at arm’s length from her father’s personal history. But when she is invited to join him for the sixtieth anniversary of the Jedburghs—an elite special operations unit that was the first collaboration between the American and British Secret Services during World War II—a new door opens in their relationship. As dementia begins to stake a claim over Tom Carew’s memory, Keggie embarks on a quest to unravel his story, and soon finds herself in a far more consuming place than she bargained for. Tom Carew was a maverick, a left-handed stutterer, a law unto himself. As a Jedburgh he parachuted behind enemy lines to raise guerrilla resistance first against the Germans in France, then against the Japanese in Southeast Asia, where he won the nickname “Lawrence of Burma.” But his wartime exploits were only the beginning. A winner of the Costa Book Award, Dadland takes us on a journey through peace and war and shady corners of twentieth-century politics; though the author’s English childhood and the breakdown of her family, and into the mysterious realm of memory. “Brings to mind Helen MacDonald’s H is for Hawk in the way it soars off in surprising directions, teaches you things you didn’t know, and ambushes your emotions.” ―NPR “Astonishing . . . Mixes intimate memoir, biography, history and detective story: this is a shape-shifting hybrid that meditates on the nature of time and identity . . . Tom Carew was a razzle-dazzle character, larger than life and anarchically self-invented . . . For all its vigor and comic zest, Dadland is a careful and tender discovery that patiently circles around a man who spent his life mythologizing and running away from himself.” ―The Observer

Publisher:

Atlantic Monthly Press

Grove Atlantic

Date:

2017/03/07

Digital Format:

READ IN BROWSER

ADOBE EPUB

KINDLE

Language:

English

ISBN:

9780802190383

Summary

As her father's memory fails, a daughter explores his military past: "Part family memoir, part history book . . . Compelling and moving from start to finish" ( Financial Times ).

One of the San Francisco Chronicle 's Ten Best Books of the Year

For most of Keggie Carew's life, she was kept at arm's length from her father's personal history. But when she is invited to join him for the sixtieth anniversary of the Jedburghs--an elite special operations unit that was the first collaboration between the American and British Secret Services during World War II--a new door opens in their relationship. As dementia begins to stake a claim over Tom Carew's memory, Keggie embarks on a quest to unravel his story, and soon finds herself in a far more consuming place than she bargained for.

Tom Carew was a maverick, a left-handed stutterer, a law unto himself. As a Jedburgh he parachuted behind enemy lines to raise guerrilla resistance first against the Germans in France, then against the Japanese in Southeast Asia, where he won the nickname "Lawrence of Burma." But his wartime exploits were only the beginning. A winner of the Costa Book Award, Dadland takes us on a journey through peace and war and shady corners of twentieth-century politics; though the author's English childhood and the breakdown of her family, and into the mysterious realm of memory.

"Brings to mind Helen MacDonald's H is for Hawk in the way it soars off in surprising directions, teaches you things you didn't know, and ambushes your emotions." ―NPR

"Astonishing . . . Mixes intimate memoir, biography, history and detective story: this is a shape-shifting hybrid that meditates on the nature of time and identity . . . Tom Carew was a razzle-dazzle character, larger than life and anarchically self-invented . . . For all its vigor and comic zest, Dadland is a careful and tender discovery that patiently circles around a man who spent his life mythologizing and running away from himself." ― The Observer

Author Notes

Keggie Carew has lived in London, West Cork, Barcelona, Texas, and New Zealand. Before writing, her career was in contemporary art. She has studied English Literature at Goldsmiths, run an alternative art space called JAGO, and opened a pop-up shop in London called theworldthewayiwantit. She lives near Salisbury, in the UK.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

A woman revisits her faltering father's exploits in World War II, and a marriage that felt almost as violent as the war, in this energetic memoir. Carew's father, Tom, a British special operations officer, won medals for leading French partisans against the Germans and Burmese guerillas against the Japanese; he later became embroiled in Burmese nationalist politics, sympathizing with the anti-colonial cause against Britain's fraying imperial claims. Carew's vivid narrative takes readers briskly through the horrors and excitement of war, portraying Tom as a vigorous, charismatic soldier fully in his element. His postwar life is less dashing: spottily employed and debt-ridden, he struggled to provide his family with the trappings of gentility. His first wife, Jane, born into money, grew distraught at her downward mobility; she filled the house with her furious tirades and took out her rage on her live-in father-in-law by smashing his belongings, snipping his TV aerial, and throwing bricks through his bedroom window. (The author's stepmother, a controlling woman reminiscent of Darth Vader, comes off even worse than Jane.) Carew's evocative blend of biography and memoir maintains a warmly clear-eyed tone while taking the full measure of dysfunctional and disappointed lives. Even the scenes of Tom succumbing to Alzheimer's have a dotty charm. This is a scintillating portrait of Britain's Greatest Generation at war and uneasy peace. Photos. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

During WWII, Tom Carew was a Jedburgh: highly skilled military personnel used to coordinate and train guerilla forces. As a Jed, Tom parachuted behind enemy lines in France and Burma to fight the Germans and the Japanese, respectively. After escorting her aging father to a Jedburghs' reunion, author Keggie Carew starts to piece together the history of the man she has admired her whole life. Although much of the book details war exploits, Keggie also shows the difficulties her father had after the war, trying to live a normal life. Snippets of Tom now, in his late eighties, suffering from dementia, and constantly looking for a job to make him feel useful, are heartbreaking. He seems a character out of fiction, and Keggie tells his story and its revelations beautifully. The rest of the family loses out to Dad Keggie's siblings are rarely mentioned in any detail but this is Dadland, where Keggie orbits the world of her father, and that's what you get. Fans of history and memoir will enjoy this moving and compelling book.--Sexton, Kathy Copyright 2016 Booklist