Memoirs Of A Boy

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A Long Way Gone

Author : Ishmael Beah
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0374105235
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (741 download)

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Book Synopsis A Long Way Gone by : Ishmael Beah

Download or read book A Long Way Gone written by Ishmael Beah and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-02-13 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life. “Why did you leave Sierra Leone?” “Because there is a war.” “You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?” “Yes, all the time.” “Cool.” I smile a little. “You should tell us about it sometime.” “Yes, sometime.” This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived. In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.

Radiance of Tomorrow

Author : Ishmael Beah
Publisher : Sarah Crichton Books
ISBN 13 : 0374709432
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

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Book Synopsis Radiance of Tomorrow by : Ishmael Beah

Download or read book Radiance of Tomorrow written by Ishmael Beah and published by Sarah Crichton Books. This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A haunting, beautiful first novel by the bestselling author of A Long Way Gone. Named one of the Christian Science Monitor's best fiction books of the year. When Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone was published in 2007, it soared to the top of bestseller lists, becoming an instant classic: a harrowing account of Sierra Leone's civil war and the fate of child soldiers that "everyone in the world should read" (The Washington Post). Now Beah, whom Dave Eggers has called "arguably the most read African writer in contemporary literature," has returned with his first novel, an affecting, tender parable about postwar life in Sierra Leone. At the center of Radiance of Tomorrow are Benjamin and Bockarie, two longtime friends who return to their hometown, Imperi, after the civil war. The village is in ruins, the ground covered in bones. As more villagers begin to come back, Benjamin and Bockarie try to forge a new community by taking up their former posts as teachers, but they're beset by obstacles: a scarcity of food; a rash of murders, thievery, rape, and retaliation; and the depredations of a foreign mining company intent on sullying the town's water supply and blocking its paths with electric wires. As Benjamin and Bockarie search for a way to restore order, they're forced to reckon with the uncertainty of their past and future alike. With the gentle lyricism of a dream and the moral clarity of a fable, Radiance of Tomorrow is a powerful novel about preserving what means the most to us, even in uncertain times.

Bronx Boy

Author : Jerome Charyn
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9780312278106
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (781 download)

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Book Synopsis Bronx Boy by : Jerome Charyn

Download or read book Bronx Boy written by Jerome Charyn and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2002-04-11 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Still known as "Baby", although a younger brother has come along, young Charyn makes pocket money delivering eggs, belongs to a group of twelve-year-old wannabe gangsters who meet in a soda shop run by an ex-con, and spends afternoons telling stories to the adoring wife of a wealthy Russian emigre. He becomes famous for his black-and-tans - a concoction of coffee ice cream, seltzer, milk, chocolate sauce, crushed pecans, and "a touch of bitterness that may have been the Bronx". So famous, indeed, that he walks away the winner of an annual black-and-tan contest sponsored by the real-life top gangster, called "The Little Man", Meyer Lansky."--BOOK JACKET.

America's Boy

Author : Wade Rouse
Publisher : Dutton Books
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis America's Boy by : Wade Rouse

Download or read book America's Boy written by Wade Rouse and published by Dutton Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A journalist remembers his childhood struggles to gain acceptance from the jeans-wearing set, his envy of his admired older brother, his parent's atypical personalities, and the Fourth of July accident that ended his brother's life.

The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy

Author : Robert Leleux
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0312361688
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (123 download)

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Book Synopsis The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy by : Robert Leleux

Download or read book The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy written by Robert Leleux and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-01-08 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Dear John letter Daddy left for Mother and me, on a Saturday afternoon in early June 1996, on the inlaid Florentine table in the front entry of our house, which we found that night upon returning from a day spent in the crème-colored light of Neiman’s, Daddy wrote that he was leaving us because Mother was crazy, and because she’d driven me crazy in a way that perfectly suited her own insanity. In a memoir studded with delicious lines and unforgettable set pieces, Robert Leleux describes his East Texas boyhood and coming of age under the tutelage of his eccentric, bewigged, flamboyant, and knowing mother. Left high and dry by Daddy and living on their in-laws’ horse ranch in a white-pillared house they can’t afford, Robert and Mother find themselves chronically low on cash. Soon they are forced into more modest quarters, and as a teenaged Robert watches with hilarity and horror, Mother begins a desperate regimen of makeovers, extreme plastic surgeries, and finally hairpiece epoxies---all calculated to secure a new, wealthy husband. Mother’s strategy takes her, with Robert in tow, from the glamorous environs of the Neiman Marcus beauty salon to questionable surgery offices and finally to a storefront clinic on the wrong side of Houston. Meanwhile, Robert begins his own journey away from Mother and through the local theater’s world of miscast hopefuls and thwarted ambitions---and into a romance that surprises absolutely no one but himself. Written with a warmth and a wicked sense of fun that lighten even the most awful circumstances, The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy is a sparkling debut.

Boy Erased

Author : Garrard Conley
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0698155556
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (981 download)

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Book Synopsis Boy Erased by : Garrard Conley

Download or read book Boy Erased written by Garrard Conley and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times bestselling memoir about identity, love and understanding. Now a major motion picture starring Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and Lucas Hedges, directed by Joel Edgerton. "Every sentence of the story will stir your soul" (O Magazine). The son of a Baptist pastor and deeply embedded in church life in small town Arkansas, as a young man Garrard Conley was terrified and conflicted about his sexuality. When Garrard was a nineteen-year-old college student, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changing decision: either agree to attend a church-supported conversion therapy program that promised to “cure” him of homosexuality; or risk losing family, friends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. Through an institutionalized Twelve-Step Program heavy on Bible study, he was supposed to emerge heterosexual, ex-gay, cleansed of impure urges and stronger in his faith in God for his brush with sin. Instead, even when faced with a harrowing and brutal journey, Garrard found the strength and understanding to break out in search of his true self and forgiveness. By confronting his buried past and the burden of a life lived in shadow, Garrard traces the complex relationships among family, faith, and community. At times heart-breaking, at times triumphant, this memoir is a testament to love that survives despite all odds.

Bad Boy

Author : Walter Dean Myers
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061974935
Total Pages : 159 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (619 download)

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Book Synopsis Bad Boy by : Walter Dean Myers

Download or read book Bad Boy written by Walter Dean Myers and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic memoir that's gripping, funny, and ultimately unforgettable from the bestselling former National Ambassador of Books for Young People. A strong choice for summer reading—an engaging and powerful autobiographical exploration of growing up a so-called "bad boy" in Harlem in the 1940s. As a boy, Myers was quick-tempered and physically strong, always ready for a fight. He also read voraciously—he would check out books from the library and carry them home, hidden in brown paper bags in order to avoid other boys' teasing. He aspired to be a writer (and he eventually succeeded). But as his hope for a successful future diminished, the values he had been taught at home, in school, and in his community seemed worthless, and he turned to the streets and to his books for comfort. Don’t miss this memoir by New York Times bestselling author Walter Dean Myers, one of the most important voices of our time.

Boy Soldier of the Confederacy

Author : Kathleen Gorman
Publisher : SIU Press
ISBN 13 : 9780809327225
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (272 download)

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Book Synopsis Boy Soldier of the Confederacy by : Kathleen Gorman

Download or read book Boy Soldier of the Confederacy written by Kathleen Gorman and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2006-08-02 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Johnnie Wickersham was fourteen when he ran away from his Missouri home to fight for the Confederacy. Fifty years after the war, he wrote his memoir at the request of family and friends and distributed it privately in 1915. Boy Soldier of the Confederacy: The Memoir of Johnnie Wickersham offers not only a rare look into the Civil War through the eyes of a child but also a coming-of-age story. Edited by Kathleen Gorman, the volume presents a new introduction and annotations that explain how the war was glorified over time, the harsh realities suppressed in the nation’s collective memory. Gorman describes a man who nostalgically remembers the boy he once was. She maintains that the older Wickersham who put pen to paper decades later likely glorified and embellished the experience, accepting a polished interpretation of his own past. Wickersham recounts that during his first skirmish he was "wild with the ecstasy of it all" and notes that he was "too young to appreciate the danger." The memoir traces his participation in an October 1861 Confederate charge against Springfield, Missouri; his fight at the battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862; his stay at a plantation he calls Fairyland; and the battle of Corinth. The volume details Wickersham’s assignment as an orderly for General Sterling Price, his capture at Vicksburg in 1863, his parole, and later his service with General John Bell Hood for the 1864 fighting around Atlanta. Wickersham also describes the Confederate surrender in New Orleans, the reconciliation of the North and the South, and his own return and reunification with his family. While Gorman’s incisive introduction and annotations allow readers to consider how memories can be affected by the passage of time, Wickersham’s boy-turned-soldier tale offers readers an engaging narrative, detailing the perceptions of a child on the cusp of adulthood during a turbulent period in our nation’s history.

Lucknow Boy

Author : Vinod Mehta
Publisher : Penguin Books India
ISBN 13 : 0670085294
Total Pages : 358 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Lucknow Boy by : Vinod Mehta

Download or read book Lucknow Boy written by Vinod Mehta and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2011 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Autobiography of Vinod Mehta, born 1941, Indian editor and journalist.

The Boys

Author : Ron Howard
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0063065266
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (63 download)

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Book Synopsis The Boys by : Ron Howard

Download or read book The Boys written by Ron Howard and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “This extraordinary book is not only a chronicle of Ron’s and Clint’s early careers and their wild adventures, but also a primer on so many topics—how an actor prepares, how to survive as a kid working in Hollywood, and how to be the best parents in the world! The Boys will surprise every reader with its humanity.” — Tom Hanks "I have read dozens of Hollywood memoirs. But The Boys stands alone. A delightful, warm and fascinating story of a good life in show business.” — Malcolm Gladwell Happy Days, The Andy Griffith Show, Gentle Ben—these shows captivated millions of TV viewers in the ’60s and ’70s. Join award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard and audience-favorite actor Clint Howard as they frankly and fondly share their unusual family story of navigating and surviving life as sibling child actors. “What was it like to grow up on TV?” Ron Howard has been asked this question throughout his adult life. in The Boys, he and his younger brother, Clint, examine their childhoods in detail for the first time. For Ron, playing Opie on The Andy Griffith Show and Richie Cunningham on Happy Days offered fame, joy, and opportunity—but also invited stress and bullying. For Clint, a fast start on such programs as Gentle Ben and Star Trek petered out in adolescence, with some tough consequences and lessons. With the perspective of time and success—Ron as a filmmaker, producer, and Hollywood A-lister, Clint as a busy character actor—the Howard brothers delve deep into an upbringing that seemed normal to them yet was anything but. Their Midwestern parents, Rance and Jean, moved to California to pursue their own showbiz dreams. But it was their young sons who found steady employment as actors. Rance put aside his ego and ambition to become Ron and Clint’s teacher, sage, and moral compass. Jean became their loving protector—sometimes over-protector—from the snares and traps of Hollywood. By turns confessional, nostalgic, heartwarming, and harrowing, THE BOYS is a dual narrative that lifts the lid on the Howard brothers’ closely held lives. It’s the journey of a tight four-person family unit that held fast in an unforgiving business and of two brothers who survived “child-actor syndrome” to become fulfilled adults.

Blue-Eyed Boy

Author : Robert Timberg
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143127594
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis Blue-Eyed Boy by : Robert Timberg

Download or read book Blue-Eyed Boy written by Robert Timberg and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From journalist Robert Timberg, a memoir of the struggle to reclaim his life after being severely burned as a Marine lieutenant in Vietnam. In January 1967, Robert Timberg was a short-timer, counting down the days until his combat tour ended. He had thirteen days to go when his vehicle struck a Viet Cong land mine, resulting in third-degree burns of his face and much of his body. He survived, barely, then began the arduous battle back, determined to build a new life and make it matter. Remarkable as was his return to health--he endured no less than thirty-five operations--perhaps more remarkable was his decision to reinvent himself as a journalist, one of the most public of professions. Blue-Eyed Boy is a gripping, occasionally comic account of what it took for an ambitious man, aware of his frightful appearance but hungry for meaning and accomplishment, to master a new craft amid the pitying stares and shocked reactions of many he encountered on a daily basis. Timberg was at the top of his game as White House correspondent for The Baltimore Sun when suddenly his work brought his life full circle: the Iran-Contra scandal broke. At its heart were three fellow Naval Academy graduates and Vietnam-era veterans. Timberg's coverage of that story resulted in his first book, The Nightingale's Song, a powerful work of narrative nonfiction that follows the three academy graduates most deeply involved in Iran-Contra--Oliver North among them--as well as two other well-known Navy men, John McCain and James Webb, from the academy through Vietnam and into the Reagan years. In Blue-Eyed Boy, Timberg relates how he came to know these five men and how their stories helped him understand the ways the Vietnam War and the furor that swirled around it continue to haunt the nation, even now, nearly four decades after its dismal conclusion. Timberg is no saint, and he has traveled a hard and often bitter road.

Hippie Boy

Author : Ingrid Ricks
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0425274004
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (252 download)

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Book Synopsis Hippie Boy by : Ingrid Ricks

Download or read book Hippie Boy written by Ingrid Ricks and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the unforgettable New York Times bestselling memoir about growing up in a dysfunctional Mormon family--and finding escape, adventure, and hard-earned wisdom on the road... What would you do if your stepfather pinned you down and tried to cast Satan out of you? For thirteen-year-old Ingrid, the answer is simple: RUN. For years Ingrid Ricks yearned to escape the poverty and the suffocating brand of Mormon religion that oppressed her at home. Her chance came when she was thirteen and took a trip with her divorced dad, traveling throughout the Midwest, selling tools and hanging around with the men on his shady revolving sales crew. It felt like freedom from her controlling mother and cruel, authoritarian stepfather—but it came with its own disappointments and dysfunctions, and she would soon learn a lesson that would change her life: she can't look to others to save her; she has to save herself.

This Boy

Author : Alan Johnson
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1448110483
Total Pages : 311 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (481 download)

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Book Synopsis This Boy by : Alan Johnson

Download or read book This Boy written by Alan Johnson and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-05-09 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The best memoir by a politician you will ever read' The Times School on the Kings Road, Chelsea in the Swinging 60s, the rock-and-roll years, the race riots; this boy has seen it all. Alan Johnson's childhood was not so much difficult as unusual - particularly for a man who was destined to become Home Secretary. Not in respect of the poverty, which was shared with many of those living in Britain's post-war slums, but in its transition from being part of a two-parent family to having a single mother and then to no parents at all... This is essentially the story of two incredible women: Alan's mother, Lily, who battled against poor health, poverty, domestic violence and loneliness to try to ensure a better life for her children; and his sister, Linda, who had to assume an enormous amount of responsibility at a very young age and who fought to keep the family together and out of care when she herself was still only a child. This Boy is one man's story, but it is also the story of England and the West London slums which are hard to imagine in the capital today. No matter how harsh the details, Alan Johnson writes with a spirit of generous acceptance, of humour and openness which makes his book anything but a grim catalogue of miseries. ________ PRAISE FOR THIS BOY: 'Moving and unforgettable' Sunday Times 'Poignant' Telegraph 'Eloquent' Guardian 'Wonderful' Spectator 'Tribute to two strong women' Daily Mail

Boy Kings of Texas

Author : Domingo Martinez
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 0762786825
Total Pages : 459 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (627 download)

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Book Synopsis Boy Kings of Texas by : Domingo Martinez

Download or read book Boy Kings of Texas written by Domingo Martinez and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2012-07-03 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST A lyrical and authentic book that recounts the story of a border-town family in Brownsville, Texas in the 1980's, as each member of the family desperately tries to assimilate and escape life on the border to become "real" Americans, even at the expense of their shared family history. This is really un-mined territory in the memoir genre that gives in-depth insight into a previously unexplored corner of America.

Mama's Boy

Author : Dustin Lance Black
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 1524733288
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (247 download)

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Book Synopsis Mama's Boy by : Dustin Lance Black

Download or read book Mama's Boy written by Dustin Lance Black and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This heartfelt, deeply personal memoir explores how a celebrated filmmaker and activist and his conservative Mormon mother built bridges across today’s great divides—and how our stories hold the power to heal. Dustin Lance Black wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Milk and helped overturn California’s anti–gay marriage Proposition 8, but as an LGBTQ activist he has unlikely origins—a conservative Mormon household outside San Antonio, Texas. His mother, Anne, was raised in rural Louisiana and contracted polio when she was two years old. She endured brutal surgeries, as well as braces and crutches for life, and was told that she would never have children or a family. Willfully defying expectations, she found salvation in an unlikely faith, raised three rough-and-rowdy boys, and escaped the abuse and violence of two questionably devised Mormon marriages before finding love and an improbable career in the U.S. civil service. By the time Lance came out to his mother at age twenty-one, he was a blue-state young man studying the arts instead of going on his Mormon mission. She derided his sexuality as a sinful choice and was terrified for his future. It may seem like theirs was a house destined to be divided, and at times it was. This story shines light on what it took to remain a family despite such division—a journey that stretched from the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to the woodsheds of East Texas. In the end, the rifts that have split a nation couldn’t end this relationship that defined and inspired their remarkable lives. Mama’s Boy is their story. It’s a story of the noble quest for a plane higher than politics—a story of family, foundations, turmoil, tragedy, elation, and love. It is a story needed now more than ever.

A Boy Named Phyllis

Author : Frank DeCaro
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis A Boy Named Phyllis by : Frank DeCaro

Download or read book A Boy Named Phyllis written by Frank DeCaro and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Marian DeCaro, aged 40, checked into the hospital to have a melon-sized tumor removed from her uterus, the doctors found behind it little Frank, desperate for attention. And thus begins the saga of a boy named Phyllis. This humorous, witty, often touching memoir about the trials and tribulations of growing up an only child, a little pudgy and gay from the get-go, in the aluminum-sided walls of Little Falls, New Jersey, offers an antidote to the angst-ridden gay memoir.

Stone Motel

Author : Morris Ardoin
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN 13 : 1496827759
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (968 download)

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Book Synopsis Stone Motel by : Morris Ardoin

Download or read book Stone Motel written by Morris Ardoin and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2020-04-15 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the summers of the early 1970s, Morris Ardoin and his siblings helped run their family's roadside motel in a hot, buggy, bayou town in Cajun Louisiana. The stifling, sticky heat inspired them to find creative ways to stay cool and out of trouble. When they were not doing their chores—handling a colorful cast of customers, scrubbing motel-room toilets, plucking chicken bones and used condoms from under the beds—they played canasta, an old ladies’ game that provided them with a refuge from the sun and helped them avoid their violent, troubled father. Morris was successful at occupying his time with his siblings and the children of families staying in the motel’s kitchenette apartments but was not so successful at keeping clear of his father, a man unable to shake the horrors he had experienced as a child and, later, as a soldier. The preteen would learn as he matured that his father had reserved his most ferocious attacks for him because of an inability to accept a gay or, to his mind, broken, son. It became his dad’s mission to “fix” his son, and Morris’s mission to resist—and survive intact. He was aided in his struggle immeasurably by the love and encouragement of a selfless and generous grandmother, who provides his story with much of its warmth, wisdom, and humor. There’s also suspense, awkward romance, naughty French lessons, and an insider’s take on a truly remarkable, not-yet-homogenized pocket of American culture.