Philadelphia Freedom.

AuthorGillespie, Nick
PositionBriefly Noted - Closing Time - Brief article - Book review

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Ben Franklin moved to Philadelphia to escape a brutal childhood. Joe Queenan's memoir, Closing Time. describes an equally compelling flight away from Philly. Queenan is best known for scathingly funny attacks on idiot movie stars and America's delusional ruling class. Here he directs the same wit at a youth spent shuttling from rented apartments to housing projects in the 1950s and '60s under the misguidance of a drunken, violent father who wouldn't just leave already and a passive-aggressive mother short on love.

Closing Time is a correction to glib paeans about "the Greatest Generation"...

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