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An Island No More
Memoir, The
Gloucester I Knew
by Ronald H. Gilson
Readers of An Island No More will immediately recognize this memoir
as no routine historical account of Gloucester. It is a deeply moving
essay of an author’s experience of the fishing industry as it affected
the everyday life of its citizens. Gilson transports the reader into
decades that cover depression, war, prosperity and, finally, decline.
Gilson’s story is a poignant personal insight into many vignettes of
the characters which fill his historical account. Using the fishing
industry as a metaphor for life, Gilson reveals the life of a city over
four decades. This historical approach is the strength of his work.
Only a native of Gloucester could have written such a memoir.
As I read Gilson’s history, having been away from my home- town over
fifty years, I was immediately taken back into time. Gilson’s account
rings with such an authenticity, a virtual new experience of that time
and place came back to me. In short, this history will engage the
reader at all levels of emotion.
Dr. Richard J. Elliott
Professor Emeritus
University of New Orleans
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