All the Way Down in Murdering Town, Ohio

This is a book in two parts. Part A is a collection of connected short stories that follows one family from its inception before the Revolutionary War to the death of one of its descents in Iraq. These stories are linear, although at times the family in question is not the complete focus of each piece. Part B is a collection of poetry entitled Before Concrete and has nothing to do with Part A. These poems primarily explore the phenomena of death; themes of family history and in particular, the father figure, take charge in this section. These books appear side by side because I could not afford to pay for two separate thesis.