Ann Putnam

Full Moon at Noontide: A Daughter's Last Goodbye Ann Putnam

Marc Notes: First edition published by Southern Methodist University Press, 2009.. Review Quotes: "Old age, death, and impermanence--it seems at first glance impossible to make a reader see these timeless and universal experiences with fresh eyes, but Ann Putnam's luminous prose achieves that miracle and more, transforming pain, suffering, and loss into a literary gift of beauty and redemption."--Charles Johnson, author, "Middle Passage," winner of the 1990 National Book Award Review Quotes: "Unflinching in its look at the truths we may prefer to ignore--the passing of time, the breakdown of the body, the complicated give and take between parent and child, the fact that we are all on the inexorable march toward the end--this is a hard book because Ann Putnam has the courage to tell us the truth about aging and dying. But it's a gorgeous book, too, one born from the endurance of the human spirit and the capacity to love."--Lee Martin, author, "River of Heaven "Review Quotes: "This memoir is heart-rending and heart-warming, as Ann Putnam describes the deaths of her beloved father and his identical twin, her much-loved uncle. Putnam translates these losses into an inspiring and poignant family story that is also the tale of every family facing the inevitable."--Nina Baym, editor, " The Norton Anthology of American Literature"Review Quotes: "Anyone can suffer; only an artist can turn suffering into something beautiful and universal. If there's a survivor's guide to easing the transitions necessary with aging parents, this is it." --Ladette Randolph, editor-in-chief, "Ploughshares"Review Quotes: "Ann Putnam has given us a story of love and loss and survival that moves and instructs. She charts the decline of her beloved father, his eccentric twin brother, and her elegant and stoic mother with the caring attention of a novelist. This is truly a work of love and devotion, a gift."--Annick Smith, author, "In This We Are Native: Memoirs and Journeys" and co-producer, "A River Runs Through It "Review Quotes: "Putnam transforms the quotidian into meaning while she pushes a wheelchair, walks beside a gurney, and sits on the edge of a hospital bed. She describes the shrinking compass of her uncle's and parents' lives with empathy and understanding. Putnam's is an honest chronicle of watching one's kin grow old."--Sarah Sloane, author, "The I Ching for Writers"Review Quotes: ""Full Moon at Noontide" is at once familiar and startlingly new: All of our parents and loved ones will move from a well-lit present to an unfathomable future, but through this powerful memoir we can see the love--and anger, humor, and disbelief--that those lives have left for us."--Judy Doenges, author, "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World"Review Quotes: "Ann Putnam's story should be helpful to many people trying to care for elderly, ill loved ones. This is not a how-to handbook, but rather a model of making meaning, a narrative of love--of piecing together scraps of lives, artifacts, photographs, memories, letters."--Carol Donley, co-editor, "Doctors and Their Stories" Biographical Note: Ann Putnam holds a PhD from the University of Washington and teaches creative writing and gender studies at the University of Puget Sound. She has published short fiction, personal essays, literary criticism, and book reviews in anthologies such as "Hemingway and Women: Female""Critic"s "and the Female Voice," "Public Voices, Private Lives: Women Speak on the Literary Life," and" Nine by Three: Stories." She lives in Gig Harbor, Washington.

Contributor Bio:  Putnam, Ann ANN PUTNAM teaches creative writing and women's studies at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. She has published short fiction, personal essays, literary criticism, and book reviews in various anthologies such as "Hemingway and Cuba "and in journals, including the "Hemingway Review, Western American Literature, "and the "South Dakota Review. "Contributor Bio:  Hilfiker, David David Hilfiker, M. D., is the author of "Not All of Us Are Saints". Contributor Bio:  Cole, Thomas R Thomas R. Cole, PhD, is the McGovern Chair of Medical Humanities and director of the Center for Health, Humanities, and the Human Spirit at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. He is the author and editor of many books and articles on humanistic gerontology, including The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America.