Hey tsbccowboy, how many years did it take for that Mr. Big to get to the size it is in that picture you posted? This year will be year 3 for mine and it certainly isn't breaking any growth speed records.

Re Angela's Ashes Is there a belief/idea in the US that McCourt's story is not true? Perhaps you don't have the scale and combination of acute poverty coupled with drunkenness and feckless parenting. I have an old Irish friend who grew up in County Clare, within a few miles of Limerick in a 'respectable' farming family. She says it was well-known that the behind-the-scenes poverty was there, but never acknowledged. I have seen children begging "Give us a penny Mister" in the Dublin streets as late as the mid '60's and drunks fighting in Grafton St in the morning (unlike in England where youths wait to fight until the evening). A friend and I travelled on a train to the Irish Midlands and sat by a friendly priest. As we passed a small town dominated by a huge church he pointed out a school next door. "In an hour's time 800 boys aged 5-11 will come out of that building to go home to dinner and the same number from the girl's school over the road. It is a wonderful thing to see so many children going out into the world." We had no answer. It is only since the lessening of Church power and with it male dominance in the home leading to a lower birth-rate plus European money-input that we have seen the rise of the Celtic Tiger and the fall of poverty. Just re-read this and sorry if it seems very po-faced. I loved Angela's Ashes. :-)

Woodnymph, I too loved Rumer Godden's autobio. Lovely. In case any of you missed my riveting review elswhere around here somewhere I did read a sweet and funny memoir titled "Still Life With Chickens" by Catherine Goldhammer. Just happened on it at the library. Upon her separation from her husband she and her daughter and the chickens, of course, had to leave their rather upscale suburb and move to a small seaside town where flannel shirts were the height of fashion and live bait was sold in vending machines. They came to love their new life, I think the chickens did also. I think the difference between a memoir and an autobiography is that an autobiography is more "cold hard facts" sort of book, usually chronolgical and encompassing all the person's life to that point. I think a memoir is more of an emotional and spiritual look at a person's life which may only encompass a portion of their life. But I also think there is a lot of overlapping between the two. gbg

Reading the Stanton quotes, I must say that in a way we still struggle with with the same problems, if not officially, unofficially. The first Munch quote pretty well explains all of his work. Lilian Smith quote #2 is so right.