Description
Thus begins Character Witness, a memoir, a chronicle of a mother's struggle with mental illness, addiction, and poverty, and an inquiry into whether we can escape the legacy of the past. Brown realizes that his troubles as a young man mirrored his mother's, and as he chronicles how sexual abuse can pass down through generations--from father to daughter, and later from mother to son--he begins to look for answers about whether people can change.
Brown and his mother share a difficult history, but they also share a common sense of humor and a sense of the absurd. More than simply a recovery narrative, Character Witness centers the necessity of staying with loved ones even in their worst moments.
Product Details
| Publisher | University of Nebraska Press |
| Publish Date | September 01, 2025 |
| Pages | 202 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781496242631 |
| Dimensions | 6.0 X 9.0 X 0.5 inches | 0.5 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
"An astonishing masterwork of memoir. Writing with electric intelligence, heartbreaking candor, and deeply moving insight, Jason Brown allows his reader to understand the seemingly impossible: the unspeakable traumas and complications of intergenerational abuse, and how, once spoken, a new life for a family may be possible."--Megan Harlan, author of Mobile Home: A Memoir in Essays
"Jason Brown has a deep, touching, and fresh insight into the abiding attachment and love that family both gives us and subjects us to. Anyone not from a 'perfect' family--that is, anyone--will recognize the stumbles and pitfalls and small triumphs that chart the course of family life. The story proceeds relentlessly, but with a light touch even in its darkest moments. It is told in clear, vivid prose, without affectation or false bravado. . . . Character Witness will stand with the best modern American memoirs."--Tobias Wolff, author of This Boy's Life: A Memoir and Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories
"Jason Brown's work has always had some of the allure of the coast of Maine--vivid and frightening and beautiful. I read his books for the beautiful, amber sense of humor mixed with a lyrical sense of melancholy and fate. Character Witness has all these literary pleasures, along with the pace and tension of a thriller. . . . A gorgeous and harrowing book."--Tom Beller, author of Lost in the Game
"Just start with the first sentence: You won't be able to stop. Character Witness reads like a fever dream. It is a Denis Johnson short story come to life. You feel for his mom; you want Jason to escape: 'this cannot continue; how can it change?' And then the next page happens. Brown's work is consistently fearless, he doesn't blink, can't stop turning situations over in his head. He is a marvelous writer. The last third of this memoir is almost painful in its beauty and the purity of its love."--Charles Bock, author of I Will Do Better and Beautiful Children
Earn by promoting books
