Jerre Mangione's writing is so vivid that reading it brought back my childhood years in the 20's and 30's. His Mt Allegro (NY) was my Silver Lake (NJ). His parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors were mine with similar names. His family gatherings were mine, too. In this land of immigrants, each era has its own stories of growing up in America. Mangione tells his with the greatest affection, bitter-sweet nostalgia, and tender humor. Recently,I gave a copy of Mt Allegro to my Aunt Angie for her 87th birthday. She plans to pass it along to her older sisters.