A remarkable memoir of growing up poor during the Great Depression and the Second World War. The son of immigrants, the author was the first member of his family to go to college, working his way and winning the occasional scholarship. Next came four years in Europe as a Fulbright Fellow, vagabond, soldier, and newspaperman, then a hard patch while he struggled to establish himself as a writer. These were, he recalls, America’s golden years, from triumph in one war to humiliation in another, 1945-1975. Now, in his 90th year, he has chronicled a life that could have happened only in America.