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Life Is So Good

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Overview

What makes a happy person, a happy life In this remarkable book, George Dawson, a 101-year-old man who learned to read when he was 98, reflects on the philosophy he learned from his father-a belief that "life is so good"-as he offers valuable lessons in living and a fresh, firsthand view of America during the twentieth century.

Editorial Reviews

A 101-year-old retired laborer who enrolled in a literacy class near his Dallas, Tex., home at the age of 98, George Dawson now reads and writes on a third-grade level. From Dawson's eloquent words, co-writer Glaubman, a Seattle elementary school teacher, has fashioned two engrossing stories. First is the inspiring saga of how someone who was the grandson of a slave managed to navigate the brutally segregated small Texas town of Marshall, where Dawson was born, without losing his integrity or enjoyment of life. Although he worked from an early age and was never able to attend school, Dawson credits his strong family, especially his father, for giving him the skills to survive. His father told him to work hard, to do no wrong and always to avoid trouble with white people--advice that was brutally underscored the day he and his father witnessed a white mob lynching a black neighbor. The other theme running through these recollections is the institutionalized racism of the American South. Hardened to the entrenched discrimination that excluded him from good jobs and "white" restaurants and rest rooms, Dawson protested just once, when a woman for whom he was doing yard work expected him to eat with her dogs. Despite the harsh conditions of his life, he considers himself fortunate to have enjoyed food, housing, friends and family (he has outlived four wives and fathered seven children). This is an astonishing and unforgettable memoir. Agent, Harriet Wasserman. (Feb.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of George Dawson

George Dawson lives in Dallas, Texas.

Bio of Richard Glaubman

Richard Glaubman is an elementary school teacher. He lives outside Seattle, Washington.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Random House Inc

Filesize

780.93 KB

Number of Pages

272

eBook ISBN

9780375505300

Awards

  • Christopher Book Awards

Excerpt from: Life Is So Good by George Dawson

CHAPTER 1
Wanting to enjoy every moment, I stared at the hard candies in the different wooden barrels. The man behind the counter was white. I could tell he didn't like me, so I let him see the penny in my hand.

"Take your time, son," my father said with a grin. "You did a man's work this year."

Putting his hand on my shoulder, he said to the store clerk, "He's all of ten years, but the boy crushed as much cane as I did." Since the age of four, I had always been working to help the family.

I don't know if it was pride from Father's words or the pleasure from a piece of hard candy that beckoned, but I felt so good I thought I would burst. I had been thinking of those hard candies since my father woke me before daybreak and said, "Hitch the wagon. We gonna take some ribbon syrup into town and you comin'."

When I went back inside, the stove was going and Ma had a pot of mush cooling. We ate quiet-like so as not to wake the little ones that were asleep on the other side of the room.