![]() Gantos has a relaxed style and writes very enjoyably, peppering the pages with good jokes and eccentric characters, but it soon becomes clear that this isn't simply his reminiscence of a charming childhood the real hero of the novel isn't Jack himself, but his home town and its values. ![]() There's a simple reason, she explains, why Jack has never heard of them: "Schools don't teach the history of social reformers who were real American heroes and fought for workers' rights and justice." She gives him an education in a side of American history that would otherwise be hidden from him, telling him, for instance, about Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman, "two great American anarchists who wanted to improve the lives of all Americans". ![]() His mother only lets him leave the house to run errands or help Miss Volker, an elderly neighbour who writes obituaries and a history column for the local newspaper. As punishment, he's grounded for the entire summer. Jack is an ordinary kid who makes the mistake of borrowing one of his dad's souvenirs, a rifle looted from the Japanese, and doesn't realise it's loaded. ![]() The novel initially appears to be a fairly straightforward description of an American childhood in the early 60s. ![]()
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