Mysteries Of My Father
(THOMAS FLEMING)
Thomas Fleming''s Mysteries of My Father: An Irish-American Memoir is
a heartening, sometimes painful, instructive tale about immigration that
humanizes the ethnic clashes and odd dynamics cinematically explored in such
films as Gangs of New York and In America. Fleming examines his
Father Teddy''s life with a mixture of anguish, warmth, admiration, exasperation
and, ultimately, respect and love. Teddy Fleming is depicted as a
strong-willed, wily individual, extremely devoted to his wife and son, but not
always able to articulate his emotions or handle the turmoil inherent in his
career as a politician in New Jersey.
But he instills in his son the importance of loyalty, integrity and personal
strength.
Fleming, a noted historian and the author of 40 books, adeptly divides his
territory here into biographical, reflective and analytical portions,
paralleling his personal development and evolution with that of his parents. He
takes the reader inside a colorful and sometimes rather bizarre environment in
the process. Most importantly, Fleming shows how the lessons gleaned from his
father and mother positively affected later choices he made. He also provides
insight into early 20th-century urban America, using Jersey City as a mirror of
an era when political maneuvering and strategy were far less subtle and
community identity was the key ingredient in determining one''s destiny.
Mysteries of My Father opens with the moving story of the return of a
gold ring Fleming had been given by his father. The ring had been lost three
decades earlier while he was visiting the Argonne
battlefield, the same place his father had fought in World War I. From that
gripping start, the book simultaneously presents the history of the Fleming
family and a wonderful coming-of-age narrative. These twin chronicles vividly
show the reader how and why Thomas Fleming''s father played such a key role in
his life and reaffirm the importance of parenthood in shaping one''s character.
Resumos Relacionados
- Diamonds Are Forever
- A Father Of Penicillin
- Diamonds Are Forever
- Live And Let Die
- The Lucifer Code
|
|
