Nothing Nowhere Something Somewhere: a memoir

This memoir shines a light on an American family whose tendency to secrecy was instilled in their moonshining days in the hills of North Georgia. Author Kathryn Butterfield deftly takes the reader on a journey that encompasses decades, each with their own wars, romances, heartbreaks, triumphs, and flameouts. A move to California to escape the law, lands the family in Tarzana, California to mingle with future stars. Then on to late-sixties San Francisco, and the Filmore Auditorium scene. After a passionate romance Kathryn marries legendary bluesman Paul Butterfield. Music takes center stage, and we follow them to Woodstock, New York “before Life Magazine hippies ruined it.” Of particular interest to this very private family-chronicle is a treasure trove of love letters, written by Kathryn’s parents when courting, and a searing account of the toxic marriage that followed–a pattern that unfortunately repeats in her own marriage to Paul. She becomes a caregiver for her mother while raising her son, teaching, and writing. Eventually, she uncovers the sources of the patterns, deals with grief, and finds solace in the desert.