Overview

A riveting literary debut about the cost of keeping quiet Amy Jo Burns grew up in Mercury, Pennsylvania, an industrial town humbled by the steel collapse of the 1980s. Instead of the construction booms and twelve-hour shifts her parents’ generation had known, the Mercury Amy Jo knew was marred by empty houses, old strip mines, and vacant lots. It wasn’t quite a ghost town—only because many people had no choice but to stay.   The year Burns turned ten, this sleepy town suddenly woke up. Howard Lotte, its beloved piano teacher, was accused of sexually assaulting his female students. Among the countless girls questioned, only seven came forward. For telling the truth, the town ostracized these girls and accused them of trying to smear a good man’s reputation. As for the remaining girls—well, they were smarter. They lied. Burns was one of them.   But such a lie has its own consequences. Against a backdrop of fire and steel, shame and redemption, Burns tells of the boys she ran from and toward, the friends she abandoned, and the endless performances she gave to please a town that never trusted girls in the first place.   This is the story of growing up in a town that both worshipped and sacrificed its youth—a town that believed being a good girl meant being a quiet one—and the long road Burns took toward forgiving her ten-year-old self. Cinderland is an elegy to that young girl’s innocence, as well as a praise song to the curative powers of breaking a long silence. 

Full Product Details

Author:   Amy Jo Burns
Publisher:   Beacon Press
Imprint:   Beacon Press
Dimensions:   Width: 13.90cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 21.50cm
Weight:   0.198kg
ISBN:  

9780807052273

ISBN 10:   0807052272
Pages:   216
Publication Date:   08 September 2015
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Contested laws, contested societies: introductory remarks Mariana Valverde, Kamari Maxine Clarke, Eve Darian-Smith, and Prabha Kotiswaran Part 1 - CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES AND APPROACHES 1. Actor-Network Theory and socio legal analysis Leticia Barrera and Sergio Latorre 2. Critical legal studies: A curious case of hegemony without dominance Vasuki Nesiah 3. Critical race theory: Emergence and New Lines of Inquiry Kamari Maxine Clarke and Ifrah Abdillahi 4. Feminism Donatella Alessandrini 5. Governmentality and sociolegal studies Pat O'Malley 6. Indigenous law: What non-Indigenous people can learn from Indigenous legal thought Kirsten Anker 7. Liberalism Mariana Valverde 8. Postcolonial legal studies Renisa Mawani 9. Queer theory and socio-legal studies Sarah Lamble 10. Transnational governance and law: Global security and socio-legal studies Gavin Sullivan Part 2 - SITES OF ENGAGEMENT 11. Agriculture, Law, and the State Matthew Canfield, Amy J. Cohen and Michael Fakhri 12. Animals Irus Braverman 13. Artificial Intelligence and Public Law Jacob Livingston Slosser 14. Capitalism and capital Bryant G. Garth 15. Censorship: state control of expression Sida Liu and Di Wang 16. Cities and urbanization Antonio Azuela 17. Citizenship Engin Isin 18. Class and economic inequality Mariana Valverde 19. Climate Justice Usha Natarajan 20. Corporations Bhavani Raman 21. Data Jennifer Raso and Nofar Sheffi 22. Domestic work: transnational regulation Adelle Blackett 23. Extractivism: Socio-legal Approaches to Relations with Lands and Resources Dayna Nadine Scott 24. Finance, banking and debt Mariana Valverde 25. Food sovereignty and food justice Carmen G. Gonzalez 26. Gender and Law Pallavi Banerjee and Pedrom Nasiri 27. Genocide Nicola Palmer 28. Human Rights: Challenging Universality Ben Golder 29. Immigration, Law and Resistance Susan Bibler Coutin 30. Imperialism and law Jothie Rajah 31. Incarceration: how to understand imprisonment rates Maximo Sozzo 32. Indicators: Sociolegal Dimensions of Quantification Sally Engle Merry 33. Indigeneity: making and contesting the concept Miranda Johnson 34. Infrastructure: socio-legal aspects of a key word of our time Mariana Valverde 35. Islamic law and the state Anver Emon 36. Jurisdiction Shiri Pasternak 37. Labour and employment Diamond Ashiagbor 38. Legal consciousness Lynnette J. Chua and David M. Engel 39. Migration Brenda S.A. Yeoh 40. Ownership: Persons, property, and community Margaret Davies 41. Ownership of intangibles: Intellectual Property and the Contested Commons S. Ali Malik and Rosemary J. Coombe 42. From reproductive rights to reproductive justice Rachel Rebouche 43. Settler colonialism Sarah Hunt 44. Sexuality Brenda Cossman 45. Sovereignty Shaun McVeigh 46. Space and belonging Sarah Keenan 47. Supply chains and logistics Galit A. Safarty 48. Territory and law Nicholas Blomley 49. The Transnational Law of Human Trafficking Prabha Kotiswaran 50. Water disputes across borders Tamar Meshel 51. Water justice and indigenous peoples Pooja Parmar 52. White Supremacy Jemima Pierre and Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesus

Reviews

The toll that Burns's silence took manifested in several forms, and she details them here in a thoughtfully written examination of what motivated her to keep silent while other victims spoke out -- Library Journal, starred review A haunting debut memoir about the price of keeping secrets... [S]lim, lyrically evocative. -- Kirkus Reviews [A] raw, painful memoir ... at its most compelling when Burns sketches the contours of her girlhood ... rendering them not quaint but stifling and ominous. -- Boston Globe Burns' writing is deliciously dense and full of perfectly picked observations.... Cinderland is a powerful and captivating memoir. -- The Rumpus With gentle, focused prose, [Burns] turns the confessional memoir genre upside down. -- Pittsburgh Quarterly An expository reflection on how a place shapes our own sense of self. -- Star Tribune A scorching memoir about a town divided. -- The Kansas City Star [Burns] has a way with words that allows her to make her sleepy town and the dilapidated Pittsburgh area of the 1990s glimmer. ... Her writing is affecting without being sensational, and the reader's heart is left aching at the end of each chapter. -- The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Burns writes beautifully of coming of age in a rust belt town. -- The Star-Ledger A rare and important work . . . Burns has brought something utterly new and distinctive to the art of the memoir. --Louise DeSalvo, author of Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Can Change Our Lives Amy Jo Burns has written a humane and lapidary account of her Rust Belt childhood: the claustrophobia, the yearning for escape, the weight and consequence of secrets. I have never read a book that captures small-town American life so perfectly. --Justin St. Germain, author of Son of a Gun Amy Jo Burns's Cinderland is an exquisite achievement. From the first page to the last, I held my breath as Burns held my heart. She writes of small Rust Belt towns and the boys and girls who grow up and apart in those towns and the overwhelming need for escape and what happens when secrets no one should have to bear burn and burn. This book demands to be read. --Roxane Gay, author of An Untamed State Memoir of the highest order, Cinderland lovingly gives voice to a troubled community, small-town summers, young love and heartbreak, a scandal that tears a town apart, and the memory of a young girl who told a dangerous lie. Or did she? Amy Jo Burns writes like a dream, beyond her years, and this book is gripping, generous, and wise. --Scott Cheshire, author of High as the Horses' Bridles Amy Jo Burns delivers an unerring report from inside the universe of a teenaged girl struggling to escape the town she both loves and mistrusts. This is a place that insists on secrets held, and she is a good girl, holding hers tenaciously, at all costs. --Meredith Hall, author Without a Map 'I did not want to tell this story, ' Amy Jo Burns confesses in Cinderland, but readers will be glad she did. This memoir is testament to the incinerating power of secrets and the steely resolve of survivors. But it's also an unforgettable portrait of a small Rust Belt town in decline, and in that sense it is a story about America, one of ruin and reinvention, of ashes and incandescence. --Elliott Holt, author of You Are One of Them From the Hardcover edition.

The toll that Burns s silence took manifested in several forms, and she details them here in a thoughtfully written examination of what motivated her to keep silent while other victims spoke out Library Journal, starred review A haunting debut memoir about the price of keeping secrets [S]lim, lyrically evocative. Kirkus Reviews [A] raw, painful memoir ...at its most compelling when Burns sketches the contours of her girlhood...rendering them not quaint but stifling and ominous. Boston Globe Burns writing is deliciously dense and full of perfectly picked observations.... Cinderland is a powerful and captivating memoir. The Rumpus With gentle, focused prose, [Burns] turns the confessional memoir genre upside down. Pittsburgh Quarterly An expository reflection on how a place shapes our own sense of self. Star Tribune A scorching memoir about a town divided. TheKansas City Star [Burns]has a way with words that allows her to make her sleepy town and the dilapidated Pittsburgh area of the 1990s glimmer. Her writing is affecting without being sensational, and the reader s heart is left aching at the end of each chapter. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Burns writes beautifully of coming of age in a rust belt town. The Star-Ledger A rare and important work . . . Burns has brought something utterly new and distinctive to the art of the memoir. Louise DeSalvo, author of Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Can Change Our Lives Amy Jo Burns has written a humane and lapidary account of her Rust Belt childhood: the claustrophobia, the yearning for escape, the weight and consequence of secrets. I have never read a book that captures small-town American life so perfectly. Justin St. Germain, author of Son of a Gun Amy Jo Burns s Cinderland is an exquisite achievement. From the first page to the last, I held my breath as Burns held my heart. She writes of small Rust Belt towns and the boys and girls who grow up and apart in those towns and the overwhelming need for escape and what happens when secrets no one should have to bear burn and burn. This book demands to be read. Roxane Gay, author of An Untamed State Memoir of the highest order, Cinderland lovingly gives voice to a troubled community, small-town summers, young love and heartbreak, a scandal that tears a town apart, and the memory of a young girl who told a dangerous lie. Or did she? Amy Jo Burns writes like a dream, beyond her years, and this book is gripping, generous, and wise. Scott Cheshire, author of High as the Horses' Bridles Amy Jo Burns delivers an unerring report from inside the universe of a teenaged girl struggling to escape the town she both loves and mistrusts. This is a place that insists on secrets held, and she is a good girl, holding hers tenaciously, at all costs. Meredith Hall, author Without a Map I did not want to tell this story, Amy Jo Burns confesses in Cinderland, but readers will be glad she did. This memoir is testament to the incinerating power of secrets and the steely resolve of survivors. But it s also an unforgettable portrait of a small Rust Belt town in decline, and in that sense it is a story about America, one of ruin and reinvention, of ashes and incandescence. Elliott Holt, author of You Are One of Them From the Hardcover edition.

The toll that Burns's silence took manifested in several forms, and she details them here in a thoughtfully written examination of what motivated her to keep silent while other victims spoke out --Library Journal, starred review A haunting debut memoir about the price of keeping secrets... [S]lim, lyrically evocative. --Kirkus Reviews [A] raw, painful memoir ... at its most compelling when Burns sketches the contours of her girlhood ... rendering them not quaint but stifling and ominous. --Boston Globe Burns' writing is deliciously dense and full of perfectly picked observations.... Cinderland is a powerful and captivating memoir. --The Rumpus With gentle, focused prose, [Burns] turns the confessional memoir genre upside down. --Pittsburgh Quarterly An expository reflection on how a place shapes our own sense of self. --Star Tribune A scorching memoir about a town divided. --The Kansas City Star [Burns] has a way with words that allows her to make her sleepy town and the dilapidated Pittsburgh area of the 1990s glimmer. ... Her writing is affecting without being sensational, and the reader's heart is left aching at the end of each chapter. --The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Burns writes beautifully of coming of age in a rust belt town. --The Star-Ledger A rare and important work . . . Burns has brought something utterly new and distinctive to the art of the memoir. --Louise DeSalvo, author of Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Can Change Our Lives Amy Jo Burns has written a humane and lapidary account of her Rust Belt childhood: the claustrophobia, the yearning for escape, the weight and consequence of secrets. I have never read a book that captures small-town American life so perfectly. --Justin St. Germain, author of Son of a Gun Amy Jo Burns's Cinderland is an exquisite achievement. From the first page to the last, I held my breath as Burns held my heart. She writes of small Rust Belt towns and the boys and girls who grow up and apart in those towns and the overwhelming need for escape and what happens when secrets no one should have to bear burn and burn. This book demands to be read. --Roxane Gay, author of An Untamed State Memoir of the highest order, Cinderland lovingly gives voice to a troubled community, small-town summers, young love and heartbreak, a scandal that tears a town apart, and the memory of a young girl who told a dangerous lie. Or did she? Amy Jo Burns writes like a dream, beyond her years, and this book is gripping, generous, and wise. --Scott Cheshire, author of High as the Horses' Bridles Amy Jo Burns delivers an unerring report from inside the universe of a teenaged girl struggling to escape the town she both loves and mistrusts. This is a place that insists on secrets held, and she is a good girl, holding hers tenaciously, at all costs. --Meredith Hall, author Without a Map 'I did not want to tell this story, ' Amy Jo Burns confesses in Cinderland, but readers will be glad she did. This memoir is testament to the incinerating power of secrets and the steely resolve of survivors. But it's also an unforgettable portrait of a small Rust Belt town in decline, and in that sense it is a story about America, one of ruin and reinvention, of ashes and incandescence. --Elliott Holt, author of You Are One of Them From the Hardcover edition.

Author Information

Amy Jo Burns teaches at the Arts Council of Princeton and writes for Ploughshares. She lives in Franklin Park, New Jersey. This is her first book.

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