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Girls of Tender Age
Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir | Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
5 posts | 4 read | 1 to read
In Girls of Tender Age, Mary-Ann Tirone Smith fully articulates with great humor and tenderness the wild jubilance of an extended French-Italian family struggling to survive in a post-World War II housing project in Hartford, Connecticut. Smith seamlessly combines a memoir whose intimacy matches that of Angela's Ashes with the tale of a community plagued by a malevolent predator that holds the emotional and cultural resonance of The Lovely Bones. Smith's Hartford neighborhood is small-town America, where everyones door is unlocked and the school, church, library, drugstore, 5 & 10, grocery, and tavern are all within walking distance. Her family is peopled with memorable charactersher possibly psychic mother who's always on the verge of a nervous breakdown, her adoring father who makes sure she has something to eat in the morning beyond her usual gulp of Hersheys syrup, her grandfather who teaches her to bash in the heads of the eels they catch on Long Island Sound, Uncle Guido who makes the annual bagna cauda, and the numerous aunts and cousins who parade through her life with love and food and endless stories of the old days. And then theres her brother, Tyler. Smith's household was different. Little Mary-Ann couldn't have friends over because her older brother, Tyler, an autistic before anyone knew what that meant, was unable to bear noise of any kind. To him, the sound of crying, laughing, phones ringing, or toilets flushing was a cloud of barbed needles flying into his face. Subject to such an assault, he would substitute that pain with another: he'd try to chew his arm off. Tyler was Mary-Ann's real-life Boo Radley, albeit one whose bookshelves sagged under the weight of the World War II books he collected and read obsessively. Hanging over this rough-and-tumble American childhood is the sinister shadow of an approaching serial killer. The menacing Bob Malm lurks throughout this joyous and chaotic family portrait, and the havoc he unleashes when the paths of innocence and evil cross one early December evening in 1953 forever alters the landscape of Smith's childhood. Girls of Tender Age is one of those books that will forever change its readers because of its beauty and power and remarkable wit.
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kspenmoll
Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir | Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
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🎅🏻This tagged book was wonderful!!! Set in Hartford, CT, the city closest to me, and where I lived a few years after my marriage.

🎅🏻 I would say the Three Pines family in Louise Penny‘s
books.

#WondrousWednesday
Tagging any littens who want to join in today!

Eggs Thanks so much for playing 💕📚👌🏼⭐️ 3y
Amiable This was a wonderful book! 3y
37 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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jdiehr
Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir | Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
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Pickpick

I found this in my TBR pile and don't remember when or where I picked it up, but I am thrilled that I did! This was a riveting read. A memoir of childhood and a true crime story all rolled into one.

When Mickey's classmate is murdered in 5th grade, she doesn't understand what happened and the adults in her life do little to explain. Despite the heavy subject matter, the author is entertaining and often humorous.

This is a definite pick for me!

ljuliel 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Great book. 4y
Trashcanman Hi Jennifer 4y
jdiehr @Trashcanman Hello! Good to hear from you 🤗 4y
Trashcanman @jdiehr I hope you are well and loving your new home. I wanted say hi. I wish a good week for this coming week. 4y
29 likes4 comments
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kspenmoll
Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir | Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
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#setinmycity #ReadJanuary

Authors with books set in "my" city (technically I live in a village in a suburb outside of Hartford, CT.) Both the memoir ( Tirone-Smith) & Steven's poetry include some Hartford settings. Paul& Pauline is a children's book written by a dear friend & colleague who lives in my town.
http://pipandcompany.com/

@RealLifeReading

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Ncostell
Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir | Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
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This is a memoir that I read quite a while ago that is #setinmycity more or less as I live in a suburb of Hartford, CT and work there. Other books set in Connecticut are The Stepford Wives, The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Revolutionary Road. I work right around the corner from the Mark Twain House in Hartford which is a must see for anyone visiting the area.