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Roy Hoffman

Back Home: Journeys through Mobile Hardcover – February 1, 2001

by Roy Hoffman (Author)

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After twenty years in New York City, a prize-winning writer takes
a "long look back" at his hometown of Mobile, Alabama.

In Back Home: Journeys through Mobile, Roy Hoffman
tells stories--through essays, feature articles, and memoir--of one of
the South's oldest and most colorful port cities. Many of the pieces here
grew out of Hoffman's work as Writer-in-Residence for his hometown newspaper,
the Mobile Register, a position he took after working in New York
City for twenty years as a journalist, fiction writer, book critic, teacher,
and speech writer. Other pieces were first published in the New York
Times, Southern Living, Preservation, and other publications.
Together, this collection comprises a long, second look at the Mobile of
Hoffman's childhood and the city it has since become.

Like a photo album, Back Home presents close-up
portraits of everyday places and ordinary people. There are meditations
on downtown Mobile, where Hoffman's grandparents arrived as immigrants
a century ago; the waterfront where longshoremen labor and shrimpers work
their nets; the back roads leading to obscure but intriguing destinations.
Hoffman records local people telling their own tales of race relations,
sports, agriculture, and Mardi Gras celebrations. Fishermen, baseball players,
bakers, authors, political figures--a strikingly diverse population walks
across the stage of Back Home.

Throughout, Hoffman is concerned with stories and their
enduring nature. As he writes, "When buildings are leveled, when land is
developed, when money is spent, when our loved ones pass on, when we take
our places a little farther back every year on the historical time-line,
what we have still are stories."

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

University Alabama Press
Publication date

February 1, 2001
Dimensions

5.63 x 1.5 x 8.63 inches
ISBN-10

0817310452
ISBN-13

978-0817310455
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Roy Hoffman
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Hardcover
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After 21 years in New York City, Roy Hoffman (Almost Family) returned with his wife and daughter to his hometown of Mobile, Ala. Back Home: Journeys Through Mobile is a collection of his writings feature stories, memoirs, essays about the town, many of which were previously published in the Mobile Register. Hoffman interviews many of Mobile's distinctive characters, like Joseph Langan, a longtime Mobile mayor now in his 80s, who was once vilified as a Communist by whites who thought he was too sympathetic to blacks, and a racist by blacks who didn't agree. Herbert Aaron Sr., father of the great home-run hitter Hank Aaron, tells Hoffman why so many great baseball players are Mobile sons. These stories were written to explore what Hoffman calls a "sense of place," and they eloquently answer the question that so troubles the author upon his return: "[W]hat's left to tell me where I am?"

From Library Journal

Hoffman (Almost Family), who had left his hometown and lived in the New York metropolitan area for 20 years, returned to the South when the Mobile Register offered him a job as "writer-in-residence." Here he collects essays, a memoir, and feature articles originally published in the Mobile Register, New York Times, Southern Living, and other publications. Hoffman's work transcends region while celebrating it. He writes about what makes Mobile and its inhabitants both the descendants of the town's founders and the newcomers a rarity. The best traditions of this unhomogenized city Mardi Gras, the bay, good food, fine storytellers, and Southern hospitality are traits that newcomers adopt rather than ignore. Hoffman, whose grandparents came to the city as immigrants, has a special affection for other newcomers, and it is impossible to miss the humanity in this collection. Belonging on the same shelf as Rick Bragg's Somebody Told Me (LJ 5/1/00) and Larry McMurtry's Roads (LJ 7/00), this is recommended for all libraries. Pam Kingsbury, Alabama Humanities Fdn., Florence
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University Alabama Press; First Edition (February 1, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0817310452
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0817310455
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.85 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.63 x 1.5 x 8.63 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,518,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9,255 in American Literature Criticism
- #92,248 in Short Stories & Anthologies

Customer Reviews:
4.6 7 ratings

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Roy Hoffman

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Roy Hoffman is author of the novels, "The Promise of the Pelican," (2022), a literary crime novel of social justice in the Deep South, "Come Landfall," a story of hurricanes and war, "Chicken Dreaming Corn," endorsed by Harper Lee, about Romanian Jewish immigrants to the Deep South, and "Almost Family," in a 35th Anniversary Edition, about a Black family and a Jewish family in Alabama. He's author of two nonfiction books: "Back Home," and "Alabama Afternoons." A native of Mobile, Ala., Roy worked as a writer in New York for 20 years before returning south. He's written for the New York Times, Wall St. Journal and Washington Post, covered features for the Mobile newspaper, and received the Lillian Smith Award in fiction and Clarence Cason Award in nonfiction. A graduate of Tulane, he teaches fiction and nonfiction in Spalding University's Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing. www.royhoffmanwriter.com, @roybhoffman, www.facebook.com/royhoffmanwriter

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A. A. Tait

Back Home

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2009

Verified Purchase

This seemed to be a lovely book. I purchased as a gift, and looked through it reading a few passages. It is for one who has moved away and I think she will relate to some of the sentiments expressed, as well as have endearing memories rekindled. At least that's my goal.

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2010

Verified Purchase

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I was surprised at the various vignettes that took us from the docks of Mobile Bay to a Nazi WWII death camp and back. Mobile has been known for its colorful residents, but now we get to hear their stories!

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2016

Verified Purchase

Roy Hoffman writes great books. We both love Mobile!

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Judith I Becker

I would recommend this book.

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2014

Verified Purchase

Very enjoyable and well written.

Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2009

Back Home is a series of vignettes that Roy Hoffman published in the Mobile Press-Register and other outlets during the 1990s. Hoffman grew up in Mobile, and then moved away to attend college at Tulane University and to work for the New York Times. Back Home connects Mobile's past and present.

Hoffman is a strong writer and readers will find very few missteps in his prose. The story is very personal to Hoffman, and he often interjects his family and himself into the stories; the "personal" side of Back Home gives the book an added dimension. Also, readers will enjoy the wide variety of topics that Hoffman covers. I particularly liked the sketches of former mayor Joe Langan (who attempted to steer Mobile through desegregation and angered both blacks and whites), the bar pilots (who help guide large freighters to the docks in Mobile Bay), and Mobile's Mardi Gras.

While I recommend Back Home, there are some drawbacks. The sketches are of varying quality. Inevitably, Back Home has a "choppy" quality as well. The sketches quickly move from topic to topic and this can be jarring to the reader. Finally, the sketches concerning Mobile's present are not as strong the sketches on the past.

Mobilians will enjoy Back Home. I know of no other book that captures the soul of "The Azalea City" so well.

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2001

It is impossible to grow up in Mobile, Alabama without this historic Southern city leaving its indelible mark. Even though I moved away 25 years ago, I still call Mobile home. Roy Hoffman's collection of articles about the people and places that make Mobile unique, brought back many memories and has stayed with me long after I turned the last page. The Mobile Register is indeed fortunate to have such a talented writer at its disposal.

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