A heart -warming description of adolescent angst. While it focuses on growing up in New York within the Jewish caste system of the 1950’s, the book has a universal appeal. To capture this I was reminded of an advertising campaign many years ago in the New York subways where, under pictures of individuals from various ethnic groups, was the slogan, You Don’t Have to be Jewish to Enjoy Levy’s Jewish Rye Bread. This book has echoes of Phillip Roth’s Goodbye Columbus, with the gentle humor and empathy we associate with Ted Jacobs writing. Former Brooklyn Dodger fans, who still feel their childhood ended with the betrayal of Leo Durocher going from the Dodgers to manage the New York Giants (only the beginning of the betrayals), can be assured that this book only tangentially relates to “Leo the lip”.
Fred Busch
Chestnut Hill, MA