The Face of a Naked Lady

An Omaha Family Mystery

Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book The Face of a Naked Lady by Michael Rips, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Michael Rips ISBN: 9780547975061
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publication: June 12, 2006
Imprint: Mariner Books Language: English
Author: Michael Rips
ISBN: 9780547975061
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication: June 12, 2006
Imprint: Mariner Books
Language: English

A son uncovers the remarkable secret life of his midwestern father—and his Nebraska city—in this “beguiling [and] deeply unusual” memoir (The Boston Sunday Globe).
 
Nick Rips’s son had always known him as a conservative midwesterner, dedicated, affable, bland to the point of invisibility. Upon his father’s death, however, Michael Rips returned to his Omaha family home to discover a hidden portfolio of paintings—all done by his father, all of a naked black woman.
 
His solid Republican father, Michael would eventually discover, had an interesting past and another side to his personality. Raised in one of Omaha’s most famous brothels, Nick had insisted on hiring a collection of social misfits to work in his eyeglass factory—and had once showed up in his son’s high school principal’s office in pajamas.
 
As Michael searches for the woman in the paintings, he meets, among others, an African American detective who swears by the clairvoyant powers of a Mind Machine, a homeless man with five million dollars in the bank, an underwear auctioneer, and a flying trapeze artist on her last sublime ride. Ultimately, in his investigations through his Nebraska hometown, he will discover the mysterious woman—as well as a father he never knew, and a profound sense that all around us the miraculous permeates the everyday.
 
“Writing with similar pain and urgency as Nick Flynn in Another Bullshit Night in Suck City and August Kleinzahler in Cutty, One Rock, Rips’ terse, flinty syntax perfectly embodies the hard-boiled nature of this nearly surreal true-life tale.” —Booklist
 
“An amazing, beautiful book—a study of a certain family in a certain place at a certain time that gives us, in stunning shorthand, the reality of America.” —Joan Didion, author of The White Album
 
“At once a lyrical family portrait, a philosophical inquiry, a bittersweet evocation of a lost time and place, and an enthralling domestic mystery.” —Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief
 
“Quirky, funny, moving, and immensely readable . . . a brilliantly observed story about place, family, and race in America.” —Randall Kennedy

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A son uncovers the remarkable secret life of his midwestern father—and his Nebraska city—in this “beguiling [and] deeply unusual” memoir (The Boston Sunday Globe).
 
Nick Rips’s son had always known him as a conservative midwesterner, dedicated, affable, bland to the point of invisibility. Upon his father’s death, however, Michael Rips returned to his Omaha family home to discover a hidden portfolio of paintings—all done by his father, all of a naked black woman.
 
His solid Republican father, Michael would eventually discover, had an interesting past and another side to his personality. Raised in one of Omaha’s most famous brothels, Nick had insisted on hiring a collection of social misfits to work in his eyeglass factory—and had once showed up in his son’s high school principal’s office in pajamas.
 
As Michael searches for the woman in the paintings, he meets, among others, an African American detective who swears by the clairvoyant powers of a Mind Machine, a homeless man with five million dollars in the bank, an underwear auctioneer, and a flying trapeze artist on her last sublime ride. Ultimately, in his investigations through his Nebraska hometown, he will discover the mysterious woman—as well as a father he never knew, and a profound sense that all around us the miraculous permeates the everyday.
 
“Writing with similar pain and urgency as Nick Flynn in Another Bullshit Night in Suck City and August Kleinzahler in Cutty, One Rock, Rips’ terse, flinty syntax perfectly embodies the hard-boiled nature of this nearly surreal true-life tale.” —Booklist
 
“An amazing, beautiful book—a study of a certain family in a certain place at a certain time that gives us, in stunning shorthand, the reality of America.” —Joan Didion, author of The White Album
 
“At once a lyrical family portrait, a philosophical inquiry, a bittersweet evocation of a lost time and place, and an enthralling domestic mystery.” —Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief
 
“Quirky, funny, moving, and immensely readable . . . a brilliantly observed story about place, family, and race in America.” —Randall Kennedy

More books from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Cover of the book Revenge of the Lawn, The Abortion, and So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away by Michael Rips
Cover of the book Something Might Happen by Michael Rips
Cover of the book Mortal Lessons by Michael Rips
Cover of the book The Wreckers by Michael Rips
Cover of the book Village Diary by Michael Rips
Cover of the book Plastic by Michael Rips
Cover of the book Kieron Smith, Boy by Michael Rips
Cover of the book Summer at Fairacre by Michael Rips
Cover of the book The Barque of Saviors by Michael Rips
Cover of the book The Maid by Michael Rips
Cover of the book Soldiers of Reason by Michael Rips
Cover of the book Curious George at the Beach by Michael Rips
Cover of the book Baltasar and Blimunda by Michael Rips
Cover of the book The Answer to the Riddle Is Me by Michael Rips
Cover of the book Brand New Human Being by Michael Rips
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy