Abstract:
This childhood memoir chronicles the life of a boy who survives the chaos of a broken home, alcoholic parent, and a childhood that vacillates between joy and agonizing loneliness. Patrick Middleton finds refuge in the halls of his Catholic school, and on Sunday visits to loving relatives on Maple Knoll, his grandfather’s tobacco plantation. Adventurous and self-reliant, he works after school jobs as a bus-boy, a bell hop, and a thief, and comes and goes as he pleases until a juvenile judge has no other choice but to intervene.