GUS

It's January 1, 1949. Seventeen-year-old Gus Stern has just completed writing his memoir, which details his experiences (and those of his friends and family) growing up in Brooklyn, and briefly in Tennessee, during the Great Depression and World War II. Gus is determined to recount his experiences in their full truth, as he knows that most memoirs are tarnished by embellishment and forgetfulness. His memoir is honest and straightforward, and Gus generally strives to be a decent and honorable kid, even though he feels that he often comes up short of this goal. Gus’s story helps us view the world of seventy years ago through a young boy's eyes as he faces the day-to-day challenges of coming of age against the backdrop of dramatic world events. Gus is a talented and honest narrator, and the picture he paints provides a truer portrait of those times than perhaps even the best of historians can provide.