Was There any Shoutin'?

Cover of All Over but the Shoutin'

Yesterday I got my first assignment in English 101, to set up and keep a blog all semester that covered what I was reading (and writing, I guess).  The first thing I read was a memoir, called "All Over But the Shoutin'," by Rick Bragg, about his last meeting with his father.  It's pretty clear that Bragg hated his father, who was abusive and drank a lot, but Bragg doesn't get any kind of satisfaction out of facing him down.  He doesn't say anything to his father about how much he hurt him, mainly (I think) because he's in shock at how his father looks:  old, sick, and dying.  
After I read it, I wondered if when his father died, did he and the rest of his family manage to get out all their anger at this man who Bragg calls "the monster of my childhood"?  I don't think they could, really, but I also don't think that confronting him about it would have helped anyway.  And, I guess that's Bragg's point, that some things you just have to learn to live with.

Related articles

• My father's father drank like hell, frequently disappeared, beat my  (democraticunderground.com)
• Rick Bragg's Southern Journal: My Last Meal (southernliving.com)
• Let's Play a Game of Rick Bragg's Chicken-fried Southern Madlibs (everydayshouldbesaturday.com)