First published 2012
Richard Russo returns to his childhood in 1950s Gloversville, New York, a town built on leather and glove manufacturing that was sliding into economic decline. The Pulitzer Prize winning novelist examines his upbringing as the only child of two very different parents: an ambitious mother who dreamed of escape and a likable but unreliable father. Both were products of this tight community where tannery work provided jobs but also brought disease and hardship. As prosperity faded and families struggled to get by, Russo's mother planted seeds of ambition in her son, pushing him toward a world beyond their small town's limited possibilities. The memoir traces their joint efforts to break free from Gloversville's grip, following the complications and setbacks that marked their journey. Russo weaves together the contradictory pulls of home and departure, exploring how family bonds both sustain and constrain us. The result captures the bittersweet reality of small town life and the complex emotions that arise when we try to leave our origins behind.
Genres: family-life, 20th-century, american, autobiography, memoir, biography-memoir, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Gloversville, New York
Period: 1950s
256 pages · Hardcover · Knopf