Ava's Man

Rick Bragg’s Ava’s Man, published in 2001, is a work of creative nonfiction that centers around Charlie Bundrum, the author’s maternal grandfather. Although Bragg’s grandfather died before Bragg was born, the book is inspired by the innumerous stories, anecdotes, and memories of Charlie that the author heard from the people that knew and loved him. Bragg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is known for his nonfiction works that center on family in the Alabama region. Ava’s Man addresses the economic effects of the Great Depression and the “new” South in the 1920s. It also explores the theme of familial expectations of manhood and follows a relatively linear timeline of Charlie’s life, revolving around his relationship with Ava, Bragg’s maternal grandmother, and their children.

Although the book is about Charlie, Bragg is the narrator, and the linguistic style is very much his own. The genre is nonfiction because it tells the real history of a man who once lived, but it is more specifically creative nonfiction because Bragg colors the story with personal interjections and inventive details. In the beginning of the book, Bragg states that his family didn’t talk much about Charlie after his death because it was too painful.