Between Them

From American master Richard Ford, a memoir: his first work of nonfiction, a stirring narrative of memory and parental love

How is it that we come to consider our parents as people with rich and intense lives that include but also exclude us? Richard Ford’s parents—Edna, a feisty, pretty Catholic-school girl with a difficult past; and Parker, a sweet-natured, soft-spoken traveling salesman—were rural Arkansans born at the turn of the twentieth century. Married in 1928, they lived “alone together” on the road, traveling throughout the South. Eventually they had one child, born late, in 1944.

For Ford, the questions of what his parents dreamed of, how they loved each other and loved him become a striking portrait of American life in the mid-century. Between Them is his vivid image of where his life began and where his parents’ lives found their greatest satisfaction.

Bringing his celebrated candor, wit, and intelligence to this most intimate and mysterious of landscapes—our parents’ lives—the award-winning storyteller and creator of the iconic Frank Bascombe delivers an unforgettable exploration of memory, intimacy, and love.

How does a son piece together the lives his parents lived before him, and the private life they lived only between themselves?

• Literary Nonfiction at Its Finest: From the creator of Frank Bascombe, a masterfully crafted portrait of two ordinary people who lived, in their son’s eyes, an extraordinary life.
• An American Story: Travel the back roads of the Great Depression and postwar South with Parker, a traveling starch salesman, and Edna, his spirited wife, as they build a private world on the road.
• The Bonds of Family: A tender and clear-eyed look at a long marriage, the fierce, insular love between two people, and the arrival of a late-born, only child who would change everything.
• A Meditation on Memory: Ford grapples with the questions every adult child faces—who were my parents, really?—in an eloquent exploration of how love endures even after a devastating loss.