In his frank, often hilarious and always colorful new book, Raising Mama: A Memoir (now available through AuthorHouse), Larry Michael Sullivan shares with readers what it was like to grow up amid the sweeping social, political and cultural changes that defined the 1950s and '60s in the American South.
Told from the unlikely point of view of a precocious child born to a dirt-poor Southern woman, Raising Mama is a road trip across America as Sullivan attends eight schools in five states in five years. His mother's favorite husband is a career criminal and for Sullivan, reality is one surreal situation after another.
"Raising Mama is an American saga," says Sullivan. "It's a love story rivaling 'Romeo and Juliet.' It's Tom Sawyer in Jack Kerouac's world."
Sullivan's stream of consciousness narration is engaging and candid as he and his mother, Dot, find their lives as descendants of a matriarchal Cherokee society in constant conflict with the dominant culture. Women who have committed to a relationship, had a child or participated in the workforce can identify with Dot's plight, Sullivan says, but few will understand her reaction to her sometimes hilarious, frequently tragic circumstances.
The family is irrevocably affected by the Cold War as Sullivan's stepfather tries to go straight for once. In addition, Sullivan reflects on watching the birth of rock 'n' roll in his hometown of Memphis, Tenn., and there is even a brush with infamy when his mother works for one night for one of Jack Ruby's businesses.
A clear look into the past from an under-represented perspective, Raising Mama describes the late 1950s as they were: a turbulent time filled with racial tensions, anti-Communism and the beginnings of the counterculture.
Sullivan holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and is a graduate of the Institute for Administrative Justice at McGeorge School of Law. He spent eight years writing under the pen-name memphis slim for the Free Venice (Calif.) Beachhead and the Great Speckled Bird in Atlanta. He is author of the short story "REVENGE, in KEY WEST and BEYOND," published by the Key West Writers Guild. Sullivan has published poetry in English and Spanish and is a retired civil servant. He and his wife, Kathryn, live in southwest New Mexico and have numerous grandchildren.
