Girls of Tender Age: A MemoirIn 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 everyone’s 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 characters—her 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 Hershey’s 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 there’s 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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LibraryThing Review
User Review - bnbookgirl - LibraryThingThis is such a great memoir/true crime story. The author covers coming-of-age, autism, pedophilia, murder and social and legal issues of the 1950's. I was intrigued by the telling of the two stories ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - indygo88 - LibraryThingThis was a well-written story in a somewhat unique format -- part memoir, part true crime -- but it worked. The author tells of her years as a young girl growing up in Connecticut in the 1950's with a ... Read full review
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Common terms and phrases
asks Auntie Margaret bagna cauda beach Bob Malm Bob’s Britain Avenue brother can’t Charter Oak Terrace Chief Godfrey child confession Connecticut Connecticut Supreme Court Coolidge Street Corana crime D’Allessio dead death didn’t doesn’t door Egan eyes father says Fort Devens Fox’s Fred front Gail Girls of Tender goes Hartford County Hartford Courant he’s hear Irene Irene’s Irene’s mother Jack’s Jackie Kathy Delaney kids killer kitchen little girl live look Loretta Young Magdalena Malm’s Marietta Mary Mary-Ann Tirone Mary’s Mickey Miss Bowie murder neighborhood never night Nilan Street nurse Old Saybrook parents Pidgie Pidgie’s Pippi play police priest remember Robert Malm scarf Sequin Street sister sitting smiles State’s Attorney stop tell Tender Age there’s thing Tirone told Tyler Uncle Guido View-Master walk West Hartford won’t
Bibliographic information
| Title | Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir |
| Author | Mary-Ann Tirone Smith |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Simon and Schuster, 2006 |
| ISBN | 0743292944, 9780743292948 |
| Length | 304 pages |
| Subjects | › › Biography & Autobiography / Literary Figures Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs True Crime / Murder / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |