White Field, Black Sheep: A Lithuanian-American Life
4/5
()
About this ebook
Her parents never really explained what a D.P. was. Years later Daiva Markelis learned that “displaced person” was the designation bestowed upon European refugees like her mom and dad who fled communist Lithuania after the war. Growing up in the Chicago suburb of Cicero, though, Markelis had only heard the name T.P., since her folks pronounced the D as a T: “In first grade we had learned about the Plains Indians, who had lived in tent-like dwellings made of wood and buffalo skin called teepees. In my childish confusion, I thought that perhaps my parents weren’t Lithuanian at all, but Cherokee. I went around telling people that I was the child of teepees.” So begins this touching and affectionate memoir about growing up as a daughter of Lithuanian immigrants.
Markelis was raised during the 1960s and 1970s in a household where Lithuanian was the first language. White Field, Black Sheep derives much of its charm from this collision of old world and new: a tough but cultured generation that can’t quite understand the ways of America and a younger one weaned on Barbie dolls and The Brady Bunch, Hostess cupcakes and comic books, The Monkees and Captain Kangaroo. Throughout, Markelis recalls the amusing contortions of language and identity that animated her childhood. She also humorously recollects the touchstones of her youth, from her First Communion to her first game of Twister. Ultimately, she revisits the troubles that surfaced in the wake of her assimilation into American culture: the constricting expectations of her family and community, her problems with alcoholism and depression, and her sometimes contentious but always loving relationship with her mother.
Deftly recreating the emotional world of adolescence, but overlaying it with the hard-won understanding of adulthood, White Field, Black Sheep is a poignant and moving memoir—a lively tale of this Lithuanian-American life.
Related to White Field, Black Sheep
Related ebooks
The Book That Ate My Brother Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Finding Gobi: Young Reader's Edition: The True Story of One Little Dog's Big Journey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Little Kittens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRosie and the Dance of the Dinosaurs Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Watchdog and the Coyotes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Magical Adventure: Rise of Celestial Flame Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne of Ours Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Social Butterfly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Classic Starts®: Frankenstein Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Color of My Fur Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Snow Day for Plum! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Places in My Neighborhood Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSnowy Sports: Ready, Set, Play! Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sammy Spider's First Shavuot Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Selected Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSleeping With Gypsies: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInspirational Stories: Set 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDarkest Hour Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Oldest Word Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Hunter: An American Family Album Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories from Forest and Steppe: The Country Diaries of the Russian Countess Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSensations of the Mind: Volume 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKnish: In Search of the Jewish Soul Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Irish Paradox: How and Why We Are Such a Contradictory People Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCuentos from the House on West Connecticut Avenue Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEscape into Danger: The True Story of a Kievan Girl in World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Pea Pickers Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Yes You! Yes Now! Visiting Your Ancestral Town Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Biography & Memoir For You
Jack Reacher Reading Order: The Complete Lee Child’s Reading List Of Jack Reacher Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mommie Dearest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taste: My Life Through Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ivy League Counterfeiter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leonardo da Vinci Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Rediscovered Books): A Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Mob: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for White Field, Black Sheep
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Author Daiva Markelis shares stories about growing up in an immigrant Lithuanian family in her heartfelt memoir, White Fields, Black Sheep. She writes about her indomitable parents, flighty sister, and various romantic partners, as well as her bouts with alcoholism and depression. The overall tone of the book is elegiac, as Markelis mourns the decline of her immigrant Lithuanian neighborhood in Cicero, Illinois, as well as the mother country she can only know from a distance. Well worth reading.