- Taschenbuch: 384 Seiten
- Verlag: Grand Central Publishing (1. März 2000)
- Sprache: Englisch
- ISBN-10: 0446675687
- ISBN-13: 978-0446675680
- Größe und/oder Gewicht: 13,3 x 2,5 x 20,3 cm
- Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: 4.3 von 5 Sternen Alle Rezensionen anzeigen (6 Kundenrezensionen)
- Amazon Bestseller-Rang: Nr. 2.326.192 in Englische Bücher (Siehe Top 100 in Englische Bücher)
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Produktinformation |
Mehr über den Autor
Entdecken Sie Bücher, lesen Sie über Autoren und mehr
› Besuchen Sie die Seite von Dennis Smith auf Amazon
› Besuchen Sie die Seite von Dennis Smith auf Amazon
Produktbeschreibungen
From Booklist
Smith knows memoirs: his Report from Engine Co. 82 (1972, 1991) has sold more than two million copies. So readers will expect good things from his reflections on his pre-firefighting years on the tough streets of New York. The memoir is a paean to Smith's mother, Mary, who raised sons Billy and Dennis on welfare and occasional housecleaning and ironing jobs and, later, on a job with the telephone company because the boys' father had been hospitalized. (The boys couldn't visit him, and the reason for his dad's hospitalization was a central mystery of young Dennis' life.) The Smiths lived in inexpensive apartments on the East Side of midtown Manhattan, went to Catholic schools, and got into trouble with neighborhood kids whose families were almost as poor as they. Smith brings to life that distant, immigrant community, describing family, school, church, and streets as they were perceived by the child he was, from age seven to his arrival at Engine Co. 82 in 1965. Involving and vivid. Mary Carroll
-- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
From Kirkus Reviews
A richly detailed, lovingly told memoir of the author's tempestuous 1950s boyhood in an Irish-Italian neighborhood of New York City. Smith (Firefighters: Their Lives in Their Own Words, 1988, etc.), his older brother, Billy, and his disciplinarian mother, Mary, lived in a squalid, roach-infested tenement building on New York's Lower East Side. The family was on welfare; their absent father resided in an insane asylum upstate, creating a ``big empty hole'' at the center of their impoverished existence. While brother Billy was an exemplary child, Dennis had a nose for trouble, consistently being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He would hang around with the neighborhood hoodlums, joyriding in stolen cars, fighting in drunken brawls, buying heroin in Harlem, and quitting school at 15. He was hellbent on self-destruction. Through it all, his mother fought a seemingly futile battle to save her son from a future of despair. She stayed up waiting for his return from an all-night bender, demanding an explanation. ``Like a cop from the 17th Precinct,'' she was the conscience that wouldn't let him surrender to the lure of the streets. She wasnt alone in caring for Smith: brother Billy passed out advice and the occasional beating; a respected Boys' Club counselor named Archie demanded that Dennis stop wasting his life. Catholic school helped, bequeathing him a guilt-ridden conscience that hamstrung his adolescent sex life. By the time he was facing imprisonment for assault, smith understoond his mother's message. By book's end, he's transformed his life, earning his GED, joining the New York City Fire Department, getting married, and becoming an upstanding citizen. The final few pages are a paean to the American values of hard work and caring for others. Like Pete Hamil in A Drinking Life, Smith has written an absorbing memoir that vividly re-creates the pains and joys of an impoverished Irish-American boyhood. (Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
-- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
In diesem Buch
(Mehr dazu)
Einleitungssatz
I am seven years old and I know the difference between right and wrong. Lesen Sie die erste Seite
Buchdeckel | Copyright | Auszug | Rückseite
I am seven years old and I know the difference between right and wrong. Lesen Sie die erste Seite
Mehr entdecken
Wortanzeiger
Ausgewählte Seiten ansehenWortanzeiger
Buchdeckel | Copyright | Auszug | Rückseite
Tags(Was ist das?)Bei einem Tag handelt es sich um ein Schlagwort, das zum Produkt passt.
Tags erleichtern allen Kunden die Suche und die Sortierung ihrer Lieblingsprodukte. |
Eine digitale Version dieses Buchs im Kindle-Shop verkaufen
Wenn Sie ein Verleger oder Autor sind und die digitalen Rechte an einem Buch haben, können Sie die digitale Version des Buchs in unserem Kindle-Shop verkaufen.
Weitere Informationen
Kundenrezensionen
Die hilfreichsten Kundenrezensionen
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
This book brought back many memories of growing up on the East Side of Manhattan in the early 50's. It's a poignant, yet loving look at "coming of age". I highly recommend it...
Format:Hörkassette
The sad yet uplifting story of this young boy's life is only empowered by the beautiful music that punctuates the audio book. I love Irish music and the concertina has such a mournful quality that it brought to life the troubles of this small family.
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
This book by Dennis Smith is a fine prequel to his Engine Co. 82. In 82 we saw a young man dealing with the job he has chosen for himself, and a difficult job that was. In Song for Mary we see the boy who became that man. The only way a man could become a fireman is if he had great compassion for humanity. Mary, his mother, gave him this compassion. The "Song" of the title resonates throughout the book with the haunting refrain of The Rose of Tralee. I thought this memoir was as good, if not better, than those of Frank McCourt and others which have filled the bookshops recently. A MUST-READ for anyone who cherishes their Irish-American heritage or if they came of age in New York City,
Möchten Sie weitere Rezensionen zu diesem Artikel anzeigen?
Waren diese Rezensionen hilfreich?
Wir wollen von Ihnen hören.
Die neuesten Kundenrezensionen
I have actually read the book and I'm not a relative.
This book is definitely worth reading. It is solidly based in reality, which at times makes for tedious reading (especially in the middle). Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 6. Juni 1999 veröffentlicht
I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end.
To me, "A Song for Mary" very dramatically tells the story of how hard it was for many Irish and Italian families living in the East 50's of New York City during the... Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 10. Mai 1999 veröffentlicht
Uncertain of where the author was taking me
Until the last few pages I wondered who Mary was, his mother, his girlfriend, his fellow student, a teacher? Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 11. März 1999 von WDurbin217@aol.com
Kunden diskutieren
|
Das Forum zu diesem Produkt
Fragen stellen, Meinungen austauschen, Einblicke gewinnen Aktive Diskussionen in ähnlichen Foren
Kundendiskussionen durchsuchen
|
Ähnliche Foren
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lieblingslisten
Ähnliche Artikel finden
Anhand des Sachgebietes nach ähnlichen Produkten suchen:
Ihr Kommentar
Möchten Sie die Produktinformationen aktualisieren oder Feedback zu den Produktabbildungen geben?
|
