The Crazyladies Of Pearl Street by Trevanian (Audio)

Synopsis
In this highly autobiographical saga of life in the '30s, the LaPointe family--Jean-Luc, Anne-Marie, and their mother--settle in Albany, NY, on Pearl Street, an Irish-American enclave. It's been years since they've seen the man of the house, who flitted out of their lives and is always threatening to flit back in--but never does. Meanwhile, Jean-Luc is a bookish, inventive, and unfailingly interesting boy, and his childhood is lovingly chronicled by the writer known as Trevanian (Rodney Whitaker) in a setting brought to life with all its local color intact.

Key Details
Author:	Trevanian
Publisher:	Books on Tape
Format:	Audio
ISBN-10:	1415926409
ISBN-13:	9781415926406

Additional Details
Narrated by:	Lee Leoncavallo

Publisher's Note
Legendary writer Trevanian brings readers his most personal novel yet: a funny, deeply felt, often touching autobiographical novel destined to become a classic American coming-of-age story.

The place is Albany, New York. The year is 1936. Six-year-old Jean-Luc LaPointe, his little sister, and their spirited but vulnerable young mother have been abandoned, again, by his father, a charmer and a con artist. With no money and no family willing to take them in, the LaPointes manage to create a fragile nest at 238 North Pearl Street. For the next eight years, through the Great Depression and Second World War, they live in the heart of the Irish slum, with its ward heelers, unemployment, and grinding poverty. As Jean-Luc discovers, it's a neighborhood of "crazyladies": Miss Cox, the feared and ridiculed teacher who ignites his imagination; Mrs. Kane, who runs a beauty parlor/fortune-telling salon in the back of her husband's grocery store; Mrs. Meehan, the desperate, harried matriarch of a thuggish family across the street; lonely Mrs. McGivney, who spends every day tending to her catatonic husband, a veteran of the Great War; and Jean-Luc's own unconventional, vivacious mother.

Jean-Luc is a voracious reader who never stops dreaming of a way out of the slum. He gradually takes on responsibility for the family's survival with a mix of bravery and resentment while his mom turns from spells of illness and depression to eager planning for the day when "our ship will come in." It's a heartfelt and unforgettable look back at one child's life in the 1930s and '40s, a story that will be remembered long after it ends.

Industry Reviews
"Recollections of the good bad old times can verge into sepia-tinted nostalgia, but the sheer size and splendor of Trevanian's canvas wins out in the end."
Kirkus Reviews (03/15/2005)