Girls of tender age: a memoir
(Book)
Author:
Published:
New York : Free Press, 2007.
Format:
Book
Edition:
1st Free Press trade pbk. ed.
Physical Desc:
289 pages : ill., map ; 22 cm.
Status:
Description
In Girls of Tender Age, Mary-Ann Tirone Smith fully articulates with great humor and tenderness the wild jubilance of an extended French-Italian family struggling to survive in a post-World War II housing project in Hartford, Connecticut. Smith seamlessly combines a memoir whose intimacy matches that of Angela's Ashes with the tale of a community plagued by a malevolent predator that holds the emotional and cultural resonance of The Lovely Bones. Smith's Hartford neighborhood is small-town America, where everyone's door is unlocked and the school, church, library, drugstore, 5 & 10, grocery, and tavern are all within walking distance. Her family is peopled with memorable characters -- her possibly psychic mother who's always on the verge of a nervous breakdown, her adoring father who makes sure she has something to eat in the morning beyond her usual gulp of Hershey's syrup, her grandfather who teaches her to bash in the heads of the eels they catch on Long Island Sound, Uncle Guido who makes the annual bagna cauda, and the numerous aunts and cousins who parade through her life with love and food and endless stories of the old days. And then there's her brother, Tyler. Smith's household was "different." Little Mary-Ann couldn't have friends over because her older brother, Tyler, an autistic before anyone knew what that meant, was unable to bear noise of any kind. To him, the sound of crying, laughing, phones ringing, or toilets flushing was "a cloud of barbed needles" flying into his face. Subject to such an assault, he would substitute that pain with another: he'd try to chew his arm off. Tyler was Mary-Ann's real-life Boo Radley, albeit one whose bookshelves sagged under the weight of the World War II books he collected and read obsessively. Hanging over this rough-and-tumble American childhood is the sinister shadow of an approaching serial killer. The menacing Bob Malm lurks throughout this joyous and chaotic family portrait, and the havoc he unleashes when the paths of innocence and evil cross one early December evening in 1953 forever alters the landscape of Smith's childhood. Girls of Tender Age is one of those books that will forever change its readers because of its beauty and power and remarkable wit.
Copies
Location
Call Number
Status
East Haddam/Rathbun A Adult Nonfiction
BIO SMI
On Shelf
Essex Young Adult Fiction
YA B SMITH
On Shelf
Guilford Adult Biography
BIOG SMITH, MARY-ANN TIRONE
On Shelf
Haddam/Brainerd Adult Biography
B SMITH
Storage
Subjects
LC Subjects
Child molesters -- Connecticut -- Hartford.
Hartford (Conn.) -- Social life and customs.
Novelists, American -- 20th century -- Biography.
Novelists, American -- Homes and haunts -- Connecticut -- Hartford.
Smith, Mary-Ann Tirone, -- 1944- -- Childhood and youth.
Smith, Mary-Ann Tirone, -- 1944- -- Homes and haunts -- Connecticut -- Hartford.
Hartford (Conn.) -- Social life and customs.
Novelists, American -- 20th century -- Biography.
Novelists, American -- Homes and haunts -- Connecticut -- Hartford.
Smith, Mary-Ann Tirone, -- 1944- -- Childhood and youth.
Smith, Mary-Ann Tirone, -- 1944- -- Homes and haunts -- Connecticut -- Hartford.
More Details
Language:
English
ISBN:
0743279786, 9780743279789
Notes
General Note
Includes reading group guide.
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)
Smith, M. T. (2007). Girls of tender age: a memoir. 1st Free Press trade pbk. ed. New York, Free Press.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Smith, Mary-Ann Tirone, 1944-. 2007. Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir. New York, Free Press.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Smith, Mary-Ann Tirone, 1944-, Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir. New York, Free Press, 2007.
MLA Citation (style guide)Smith, Mary-Ann Tirone. Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir. 1st Free Press trade pbk. ed. New York, Free Press, 2007.
Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Staff View
Grouped Work ID:
9286124f-2dc9-ed2f-43e1-aa260ff38c0a
Record Information
Last Sierra Extract Time | Oct 14, 2024 05:23:05 PM |
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Last File Modification Time | Oct 14, 2024 05:23:45 PM |
Last Grouped Work Modification Time | Oct 22, 2024 09:14:51 AM |
MARC Record
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