Description

Within this otherworldly memoir of remarkable energy, Mark Richard, an award winning writer, tells his story of growing up in the American South with a heady Medieval mixture of racial tension and spiritual fervor.    Called a “special kid,” Southern interpersonal signal for mentally—and physically—challenged kids, Richard was impaired by deformed sides and was informed he'd devote his adult life in a wheelchair. During his early years in charity hospitals, Rich noticed the crisis of additional damaged boys’ lifestyles, kids from impoverished Appalachia, cigarette nation lowlands, and Richmond’s lowest communities. The child of the individual alcohol dad whose hair trigger temper terrorized his household, and of a mom who wanted inner-peace through fasting, prayer, and bible, Richard used his bedridden childhood withdrawn into the organization of books.      As a guy, Richard, defying both his physicians and parents, attempted to experience just as much of the planet as he could—as a disc-jockey, fishing trawler deckhand, home artist, naval reporter, aerial photographer, private eye, international reporter, bartender and unsuccessful seminarian—before his sides failed him.  While looking irrigation ditches in east Texas, he unearthed that a teacher had delivered a tale of his towards the Atlantic, where it had been named successful in the magazine’s nationwide misinformation competition starting a lifetime career much in the form of Jack London and Mark Twain.    A beautifully written and amazing mixture of history, travelogue, and individual representation, Home of Prayer No. 2 is just a remarkable picture of the writer’s battle with his religion, the development of his craft, and of realizing one’s singularity in the facial skin of unpleasant disability.  Written with wit and a graceful pressure, this memoir is destined to be always a contemporary classic.