I read the book a year ago with pleasure and want to recommend it to all who are somewhat familiar with the US and the myths of the American male population from the 50s, 60s, 70s - including bars, sports, alcohol, and some more are - can understand. JR Moehringer brings everything to sound. It is believed the rattle of suburban trains heard that bring back the people in the evening from the Moloch Manhatten in the sometimes bleak Suburbs, you can immerse yourself in the buzz of voices and the smoke from the bar. It may be that not come off in the German translation, the mixed Showing the German edition indicate that.
Otherwise Moehringer is just a great storyteller who own, actually sad youth, the education at Yale, the tedious job search, the desire of the mother to be a caring son, has written wonderfully readable with wit and feeling. Of course, one thinks of Frank McCourt and "Angela's Ashes", whose level (and tragedy) does not quite reach the book. Also, another American journalist comes to mind, Jon Krakauer ("Into the Wild", "In icy heights"). It almost seems as if even the part of the American myth since Hemingway, namely that the country every few years a brilliant author brings forth, she tells.
Conclusion: Five stars are a bit like a too generous tip, but then ...
