From Publishers Weekly
Gallagher's previous nonfiction (Hannah's Daughters: Six Generations of an American Family and All the Right Enemies: The Life and Murder of Carla Tresca) chronicled other people's lives. Now she turns her considerable talents to her own immigrant family's history, and the result is an autobiography written with the elegance and simplicity of a fine novel. The individual chaptersAthe "true stories" of Gallagher's lifeAbeautifully render her experiences growing up as the child of left-wing Ukrainian ?migr?s in 1940s New York. Discussions about Stalin and Trotsky were the stuff of everyday life; a framed picture of Lenin hung in the attic (which, Gallagher explains, she always thought was a picture of her grandfather). Gallagher recounts anxiously hiding her family's copy of the Communist Daily Worker in the New York Post, as well as her frustrations with Camp Wochica ("Workers' Children's Camp," she assures us, "in case you thought it was your standard inauthentic Indian name"). The family's friends and relatives are as richly vivid as fictional characters: an aunt sells lingerie to prostitutes during the Depression; a family friend is found mysteriously murdered in her bathtub; an uncle recites poetry to his fellow nursing home residents. Gallagher effectively conveys the sense of familial narratives that have been handedAsometimes with great solemnity and at other times carelesslyAfrom one generation to the next. Agent, Georges Borchardt. (Feb. 16) Forecast: Rapturously blurbed by literary luminaries Alice Munro, Susan Minot and James Salter, and supported by author readings in New York City, this resonant memoir is an obvious pick for fans of Jewish autobiography and New York history. If it garners the enthusiastic review attention it deserves in mainstream and Jewish publications, it could break out to wider audiences.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-The boroughs of New York are fertile ground for ethnic traditions to flourish, but bumpy territory for the daughter of Russian immigrants who embraces communist philosophy. In this memoir, Gallagher introduces her parents at the end of their lives and then works backward to impart the tribulations of her colorful family dynamics. The personalities of her aunts, uncles, mother, and father are like a road map, with cloverleafs that eventually merge into Gallagher's life-the choices made for her and those she pursued independently. The story picks up speed with her post-teen dalliances. She describes with humor her attempts at various jobs and relationships before finding a niche in tabloid journalism and then writing books. Young adults will like the coffee-klatch style of writing and just might get a fresh insight into their own heritage.
Karen Sokol, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
by Dara Horn
by Peter Manseau
by Brenda Serotte
by Emil Steinberger
by Daniel Silva
