In the beginning chapter, Frank gave a short summery of his
family's sad and morbid history. He then ventured into the meeting of his parents and his birth.
This is where you start to get a sense of the sadness and depravity that he experienced though his
life. This feeling lingers for the remainder of the story.

Death within his family frequently
occurred through out his childhood. Most of his siblings die because of mal nutrition. The reader
gets the feeling that Frank doesn't understand the death of his only sister and the twins. This is
another aspect that I like about McCort's writing style. He writes as if he is the character, and is
at the same comprehension level.

With every chapter there is a sad aspect and with every
uplifting moment there is a downfall. I don't think that Frank at that age understood his father's
addition, which made it harder for him to see the reason his life was like it was. He was constantly
trying to impress or get approval from his family, and especially from his father. This made it even
harder to see him fail at most of the things he tried to do, like being an usher for example. The
only times I saw a least bit of happiness in his story was when he was ill with typhoid and his
father kissed him on the head and told Frank that he loved him. The other was when he saved enough
money to go back to America, where the book came to a close.

This book was a tragic and really
showed the audience what it was to live in the great depression as a poverty stricken young boy, and
actually survive it. The book was descriptive and realistic, as was his life. This is why I give
this book four stars.