Dimensions
181 x 222 x 25mm
In its heyday Gloversville, New York was a prosperous beacon of the leather-goods industry, famously producing nine out of ten pairs of American gloves. But by the time Richard Russo was growing up there in the 1950s, the only son of a largely absent father and a mother, Jean, who suffered from 'nerves', Gloversville had fallen victim to changing fashions and gone bust.
A better life elsewhere was the dream Jean instilled in her son and strived to secure for them both. Vividly recalling the road trips and adventures that took them far from Gloversville but always led them back home, Russo describes how childhood segued into adulthood and parenthood in the company of his restless mother. At the same time he recounts with touching honesty how the literary success that enriched his own life was at odds with the disappointment that punctuated hers.
At once intimate, heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, this is a son's poignant tribute to his complicated mother and a brilliant evocation of mid-century America.
