Giambri (author of the bohemian coyote romance The Amorous Adventures of Blondie and Boho, among other titles) offers vivid vignettes of his upbringing, starting in South Philadelphia in the 1940s, where the women cleaned marble stoop steps with Ajax and young Giambri gaped at mushroom clouds from atomic bomb tests broadcast on his grandparents’ 12” Philco TV, the first in the neighborhood. In brisk, crisp passages filled with striking detail—about writing for his ship’s newspaper during Naval deployments; about jitterbugging in Delaware county dance contests, fueled by apple wine; about staging theater in New York City in the late ‘60s; about discovering in the Summer of Love that he’s an exhibitionist—Giambri reveals a great deal from his days in a boys Catholic school to his service days as a seaman, all building to his wild adventures in theater before meeting his wife in the early 1970s.

Perhaps the most intriguing character arc covers his youth as a Catholic schoolboy admiring war ships in the harbor and imagining himself as a sailor, and then becoming one. Giambri does not shy away from his (mis)adventures, some charming, some blending trouble-making with impressive ingenuity, such as Giambri and his teenage coterie enjoying the use of a “borrowed” pharmacy coup the owner doesn’t seem to miss, or having a good time crashing weddings, often seeking out one that “looks good… with a crowd smoking outside,” and then wandering in “as though they’ve been there all along.”

Giambri’s focus throughout is less on his most important moments than the textures of a searching, creative life, packed with sharp character portraits (like the openly gay Francine, marching in drag at the Philadelphia Mummer’s Parade in the 1950s, ready to beat up anyone who made fun). The collection often reads more fascinating context than a standalone story, but it bursts with compelling context about an exciting life and culture at times of great change.

Takeaway: Vivid memoirs of an inventive midcentury life, from Philly to the Navy to NYC.

Comparable Titles: Anatole Broyard’s Kafka Was the Rage, Judith Stonehill’s Greenwich Village Stories.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: B+
Illustrations: B
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: B-