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Learn moreFrom the acclaimed author of the international bestseller Einstein's Dreams, here is a lyrical memoir of Memphis from the 1930s through the 1960s: the music and the racism, the early days of the movies, and a powerful grandfather whose ghost continues to haunt the family.
Alan Lightman's grandfather M. A. Lightman was the family's undisputed patriarch: it was his movie theater empire that catapulted the family to prominence in the South, his fearless success that both galvanized and paralyzed his descendants, haunting them for a half century after his death. In this lyrical and impressionistic memoir, Lightman writes about returning to Memphis in an attempt to understand the people he so eagerly left behind forty years earlier. As aging uncles and aunts begin telling family stories, Lightman rediscovers his southern roots and slowly realizes the errors in his perceptions of his grandfather and of his own father, who had been crushed by M. A. Here is a family saga set against a throbbing century of Memphisâthe rhythm and blues, the barbecue and pecan pie, and the segregated societyâthat includes personal encounters with Elvis, Martin Luther King Jr., and E. H. "Boss" Crump. At the heart of it all is a family haunted by the ghost of the domineering M. A. and the struggle of the author to understand his conflicted loyalties to his father and grandfather.
Alan Lightmanâwho worked for many years as a theoretical physicistâis the author of six novels, including the international bestseller Einsteinâs Dreams, as well as The Diagnosis, a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the author of a memoir, three collections of essays, and several books on science. His work has appeared in the Atlantic, Granta, Harperâs Magazine, the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, Salon, and Nature, among other publications. He has taught at Harvard and at MIT, where he was the first person to receive a dual faculty appointment in science and the humanities. He is currently professor of the practice of the humanities at MIT. He lives in the Boston area.
Bronson Pinchot began talking at 9 months of age. Today, half a century later, he talks into a microphone in a soundproof booth for a living. In between, he attended Yale University as well as the acting programs at Shakespeare & Co. and Circle-in-the-Square, logged in well over 200 episodes of television, starred or costarred in a bouquet of films, plays, musicals, and Shakespeare on Broadway and in London, and developed a passion for Greek revival architecture.
Reviews
âIn this sensual evocation of the past, Lightman, a physicist and novelist, shines a lush and tender light on his familyâs storied pastâŚrich in detailâŚIt is when Lightman reckons with the irreconcilableâthe things unsaid, the questions not answeredâthat the memoir ascends to a state of grace.â
âA fine addition to Lightmanâs oeuvre, this a great story tinged with nostalgia for an America that no longer exists. The author grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and the book is full of quirky history and details about that iconic American city.â
âA subtly fictionalized, emotionally refined, and radiantly descriptive chronicleâŚIt is Alanâs frank and tender portraits of his âgrossly mismatchedâ and sadly derailed parents and his candid tribute to their African American housekeeper, Blanche, that give this remembrance such poignant dimensionâŚLightmanâs utterly transfixing screening of soulful and funny family memories projects a quintessentially American tale.â
âA family death sends a celebrated author back to his boyhood home in Memphis, Tennessee, where many family members and memories awaitâŚThe cumulative effect of Lightmanâs memories is wrenching: loss and illness and death wander freely in his pages, reminding us of the evanescence of youth and promise. The author shows us many small moments, igniting each with sparks of passion, memory, and intelligence.â
âThe theoretical physicist turned writer brings to Screening Room: Family Pictures the same empathy, insight, and fine prose that distinguish his other works…Like his incomparable novel Einsteinâs Dreams, this memoir is, at its core, a tender meditation on the passage of time. With Lightman we can smell the âsweet honeysuckle of memoryâ as we appreciate the joy and sorrow of his homecoming.â
âScrewball, electric, heartfelt, and true, Screening Room pulls no punches. This is Lightman in a new guise and yet never more himself as he resurrects with aching care the time, place, and people that gave him life. I was stirred and moved.â
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