A memoir of Irish Catholic culture that was both safe and claustrophobic describes adolescent escapades and grim parochial school discipline

Product Description: How did a bar like P. J. Clarke’s saloon become the beloved watering hole for Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy, Rocky Marciano, and Buddy Holly (not to mention the fictional Don Draper)? And what was it about their bacon cheeseburger that caused Nat King Cole to pronounce it “the Cadillac of burgers”?    Established  in 1884 and bought in l904 by Patrick “Paddy” Joseph Clarke, this Irish saloon in a beautiful Victorian building on the corner of Third Avenue and Fifty-Fifth Street has captivated generations of New Yorkers—from the working class to entertainers, athletes, business executives, and members of high society...read more

The author recounts growing up poor, Irish Catholic, fatherless, and self-destructive in New York City after World War II.

Product Description: In Michael Stephens's words, "the net these pieces fall into is that world of the Irish American, the mick, the monkey face, the potato picker, the bog man." More to the point, it is the Irish of Stephens's youth, of Brooklyn's working-poor slums, under whose influence he composed these essays...read more