This book provided me with a wealth of details about my father's upbringing. He grew up at the Home but passed away when I was two. Until reading this book, I knew only a little about the Home and its impact on its residents, just scattered tidbits. For that reason, the book was a big help to me.

Unfortunately, the author never interviewed my mother, a peculiar omission given the degree to which he used my father's life as a case study in the book. The book includes a characterization of my parents' marriage that does not jibe with my mom's recollection, a characterization she found hurtful. I wish the author would have sought to interview her. As I understand it, he was steered away by others he did use as sources, who wanted to spare her the dredging up of sad memories. He made a mistake in following their advice. If after talking to her, he concluded that his version was accurate, that at least would have been intellectually honest; to simply take the word of others about the nature of a marriage without interviewing the remaining living party to that marriage was simply sloppy.

Nonetheless, I am indebted to the author. His book gave me a look at a time and place about which I have always been enormously curious.

The price is so prohibitive, no one can read the book in order to review it. This must be the type of book that companies buy for their employees, the ones that will sit untouched on the company bookshelf for the next 20 years.