Homesick by Jennifer Croft
Summary
The coming of age story of an award-winning translator, Homesick is about learning to love language in its many forms, healing through words and the promises and perils of empathy and sisterhood.
Sisters Amy and Zoe grow up in Oklahoma where they are homeschooled for an unexpected reason: Zoe suffers from debilitating and mysterious seizures, spending her childhood in hospitals as she undergoes surgeries. Meanwhile, Amy flourishes intellectually, showing an innate ability to glean a world beyond the troubles in her home life, exploring that world through languages first. Amy's first love appears in the form of her Russian tutor Sasha, but when she enters university at the age of 15 her life changes drastically and with tragic results.
Book Setting: Tulsa, Oklahoma
Camp Waluhili
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
Porter Peach Festival
Tulsa State Fair
Cherokee Nation Cultural Grounds (Tahleqauh for Intertribal Powwow)
Drysdales Western Wear
Western Wear Outlet
LaFortune Park
Tulsa Community College (Tulsa Junior College)
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
Whiteside Park
The University of Tulsa
South New Haven Avenue
Hardesty Hall (Honors House)
QuikTrip
Taco Bueno
Coney I-Lander
Metro Diner
Cherry Street
Swan Lake
Gilcrease Hills
Weber's Superior Root Beer Drive-in
Tulsa Zoo
Reviews
"Haunting and visually poetic, Croft's book explores the interplay between words and images and the complexity of sisterly bonds with intelligence, grace, and sensitivity. Poignant, creative, and unique."
―Kirkus Reviews
"Through photographs and prose, Croft's genre-blending memoir investigates how chronic illness sickens an entire family... A heartbreaking, vanguard, and mixed-media coming-of-age memoir."
―Booklist
"In this marvel of a book that magically expresses the untranslatable, Croft follows Amy’s tortured path as she asks how far, and in what way, we are responsible for how loved ones’ lives play out. In her struggle to answer such questions, Amy learns the extent and limitations of love’s power."
―Foreword Reviews