Describing what it was like to come of age in the 1930s and '40s, Baker recalls the tension and love of a family surviving disaster with strength, courage, and good cheer. .

This Pulitzer Prize winning autobiography is Russell Baker's unforgettable story of growing up in America between the world wars. It is the story of adversity and courage, of the poignancy of love and the awkwardness of sex, of family bonds and family tensions. "Magical . . . a work of original, biographical art".--Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times.