Book description
'"Whoever said beggars can't be choosers," my grandfather
would remark when she was out of earshot, "never met your
mother."'
Jean Russo was a single mother in the 1950s, badly paid and living
with her only son, Richard, in the upstairs apartment of her parents'
home on Helwig Street in Gloversville, New York.
When Richard left for University, Jean saw her chance to escape a
dead-end town in search of a better life elsewhere. So began a series
of ill-conceived adventures, as ambitious son and restless mother
strove to find somewhere to belong.
Hilarious and heartbreaking, a story of growing up and of growing
old, of becoming a man whilst remaining a son, of thinking that the
grass is greener somewhere else, but knowing that going home is
inevitable: On Helwig Street is a poignant tribute to a
complicated mother and a brilliant evocation of mid-century America.
Richard Russo won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for his fifth novel,
Empire Falls
. He is also the author of
Mohawk
,
The Risk Pool
,
Nobody's Fool
,
Straight Man
,
Bridge of Sighs
and
That Old Cape Magic
, as well as a collection of stories,
The Whore's Child
. His original screenplay is the basis for Rowan Atkinson's film
Keeping Mum
. He lives with his wife in Maine.
