The acclaimed author of Low Life reinvents the memoir in a cunning, lyrical book that is at once a personal history and a meditation on the construction of identity.
Born in Belgium but raised in New Jersey, Lucy Sante transformed herself from a pious, timid Belgian child into a boisterous American adolescent, who eschewed French while fantasizing about the pop star Françoise Hardy. To show how this transformation came about--and why it remained incomplete--The Factory of Facts combines family anecdote and ancestral legend; detailed forays into Belgian history, language, and religion; and deft synopses of the American character.
Sante has a historian's fiendish taste for information. . . a journalist's wit, resourcefulness and love of idiosyncracy." --The New York Times Book Review
"Remarkable. . . . Sante makes a reader want to know him." --The Boston Globe
Lucy Sante is the author of Low Life, Evidence, The Factory of Facts, Kill All Your Darlings, Folk Photography, The Other Paris, Maybe the People Would Be the Times, and Nineteen Reservoirs. Her awards include a Whiting Writers Award, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Grammy Award (for album notes), an Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography, and Guggenheim and Cullman Center fellowships. She recently retired after twenty-four years teaching at Bard College.
View titles by Lucy Sante
The acclaimed author of Low Life reinvents the memoir in a cunning, lyrical book that is at once a personal history and a meditation on the construction of identity.
Born in Belgium but raised in New Jersey, Lucy Sante transformed herself from a pious, timid Belgian child into a boisterous American adolescent, who eschewed French while fantasizing about the pop star Françoise Hardy. To show how this transformation came about--and why it remained incomplete--The Factory of Facts combines family anecdote and ancestral legend; detailed forays into Belgian history, language, and religion; and deft synopses of the American character.
Praise
Sante has a historian's fiendish taste for information. . . a journalist's wit, resourcefulness and love of idiosyncracy." --The New York Times Book Review
"Remarkable. . . . Sante makes a reader want to know him." --The Boston Globe
Lucy Sante is the author of Low Life, Evidence, The Factory of Facts, Kill All Your Darlings, Folk Photography, The Other Paris, Maybe the People Would Be the Times, and Nineteen Reservoirs. Her awards include a Whiting Writers Award, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Grammy Award (for album notes), an Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography, and Guggenheim and Cullman Center fellowships. She recently retired after twenty-four years teaching at Bard College.
View titles by Lucy Sante
