Halfway Home

By Mary Logue

Book Overview

"My grandmother, Mae Kirwin, scared me." With that disturbing, distant memory, mystery novelist Mary Logue begins her exploration of the life of her mother's mother, who died more than thirty years ago.

Mae McNally Kirwin was born in 1894 in Chokio, a small prairie community in western Minnesota. In 1926, the sudden death of her husband left Mae to support herself and her five children. These facts were well known, but for Logue, they were not enough. Determined to get to know her grandmother better, Logue sets out to assemble the bits and pieces of her grandmother's life. Along the way, Logue takes the reader--and herself--on a journey of discovery. Digging through forgotten bank records, old newspapers, handwritten census forms, family documents, and faded recipes, she pieces together the past. In the process, she tells a much larger story--that of a community, a way of life, a family, and a single woman's struggle to survive in a world that is both harsh and richly rewarding.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873513320
• ISBN13: 9780873513326
• Release Date: July 1996
• Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
• Length: 211 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

a powerful, personal journey

Mary Logue takes us by the hand and shows us, thread by thread, as she unravels the story of her grandmother's fascinating life on the Minnesota prairie. A memorable and highly readable memoir/biography. Anybody who has ever wondered about where they came from will appreciate this story of a granddaughter's search for her roots.

A Touching Memoir

Mary Logue gives her readers a tender and intimate peek into her family in this tribute to her Irish grandmother Mae Kirwin. She also shows us the importance of recording family stories and how to be persistent in digging up details. The loved ones of our past and present deserve more than just being listed with birth and death dates. The stories and little anecdotes about those people are what bring them to life again. They also give us a look into what life was like long ago, in this case, the life of a small town in Minnesota. I was especially touched by the way Ms. Logue wrote about the untimely death of her grandfather and how that event had a profound influence on the way her grandmother raised her children and lived the rest of her life. I also enjoyed how the author, a mystery writer (Blood Country, Still Explosion) compared family research to solving a mystery. Anyone who has done genealogy studies knows that you have to have clues to follow. Trails of "evidence" help uncover the hidden stories in your family's history. At the end of the book Ms. Logue provides helpful tips for others seeking to write a family history.