When work took Tracy Daugherty from his family’s roots in Oklahoma to the unfamiliar landscape of Oregon, his move mirrored the western migrations of so many earlier Oklahomans devastated and displaced during the Dust Bowl years. Deeply unsettled by the change in his surroundings and shaken by the recent Oklahoma City bombing, Daugherty took the opportunity provided by his own journey to explore the shattering and rebuilding of community in the America of today and yesterday. Speaking with survivors of the Murrah building bombing, revisiting his roots, and retracing the paths of exile and migration in the American West, Daugherty creates a diverse and heartfelt portrait of America in an uncertain time—its people, its politics, its music, and its poetry—a sobering but ultimately hopeful view of the national community. At heart an exploration, from an intimate vantage point, of the consequences of violence in contemporary America, Five Shades of Shadow will hold special resonance for readers struggling to come to terms with trauma and loss.

Reader Reviews

Jen Hirt

(4/5)

Jul 18, 2010

Daugherty knew Midland, Texas and Oklahoma City long before the rest of us associated those places with Bush and McVeigh. In this memoir, he revisits and reclaims those places in often heartwrenching style. He's torn-up and haunted by McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing; he's irritated that the mainstream media sets the tone for what type of town Midland is. Add to that Daugherty's fascinating with Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and the exodus of the Okies, and you have a tightly woven and co...

James Langston

(5/5)

Mar 26, 2013

Charlotte Hogg

Apr 02, 2011

Seth

(0/5)

Jan 13, 2010

Christen

Oct 15, 2010

Ariane Pineda

May 31, 2014

Miriam Frankl

Nov 24, 2015

Elizabeth

Jan 24, 2016

John Casey

Jan 25, 2016

Kim

Jul 07, 2016

BookDB

Sep 13, 2016

Eric

Apr 05, 2018

Michael

Feb 23, 2019

Madison Leigh

Jul 29, 2020

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Five Shades of Shadow

Five Shades of Shadow

Five Shades of Shadow

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