Book Description
The Depression in the early thirties created hardships for most families in the United States, but none greater than those experienced by its new immigrants. Sonny, an immigrantsa son, is returning to the United States on the troopship General Richardson, which sailed from Le Harve, France, on October of 1946. Sonnyas memories of his childhood are triggered by the sight of the Statue of Liberty as he stands at the shipas rail with a colored sergeant who, unbelievably, lived in one of the neighborhoods where Sonny fought for his daily survival. They share war experiences and memories of the old neighborhood. Serious episodes including an encounter with a pedophile at the age of fivea]humorous ones like hiding under Old Glory from his mother, thinking he was being drowned in a baptismal tank, and why his father called him the horse manure king. Sonny left as a boy and returned from the service a man: Sergeant Nickolas Bay, a nineteen- year-old veteran of the Second World War.
