Customer Reviews

Gathering the Family

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When my mother's cousin, Sylvia, called to tell her that Bill Holtz had written a book about our family, I was surprised. I had no idea anyone in the family was a college professor, let alone an author. Initially I was offended by what on the surface appeared to be a shabby treatment of family I had always loved or felt I knew through stories. However, after further reflection, I realized that the author was telling a painful story of his own struggles as he grew into adulthood.

Granted, I am biased, this being a book about my family. Nonetheless, this is an outstanding treatment of an individuals struggles growing up with an impoverished immigrant family.

William Holtz takes a risk in this moving memoir of growing up during the Depression, inviting his readers along as he explores his childhood from the vantage point of roughly fifty years. He candidly discusses the people he loved, and whom he would one day deliberately leave behind, a family plagued with serious problems including poverty, alcholism and depression.

Even as he describes his youthful rejection, Holtz's expressive and loving treatment of his characters--and his eventual acceptance and appreciation of them for who they are--is a lasting tribute and an excellent read.