Wonderland: A Tale of Hustling Hard and Breaking Even

There have many memoirs and fictionalized memoirs about growing up in certain subcultures within the United States. In this book, life in Boston at the edges of the Winter Hill Gang is described. Mostly, however, this book talks about the relationships within the family; the violence and disfunction, but also the love that survived the mean streets and the crazy family life.

What is surprising is how relatable it all is. We may not have grown up with a swaggering bigger-than-life dad, but we know that type; a veneer of charm masking the chaotic underpinnings of hidden criminal behavior.

The writer chooses a life of the mind, college and Manhattan life while her sister marries the same sort of undependable man she grew up with. Both sisters still hold their breath around their family—never knowing what they will get or how they may react.

It is also a story about gentrification and losing a neighborhood which is a part of a life story. Wonderland is an amusement park which is large in the community memory. It may be such myths about the glory days of the past obscure the realities which come unbidden.