A little bit TOM SAWYER, PENROD, and 'WONDER YEARS, ' this chronological series of stand-alone stories resumes the author's 1940s boyhood memoir of rural life that now begins to demand social, institutional, and amorous skills he has not yet learned. The book recounts the boy's bumbling attempts to navigate the perilous passages of Jackson Junior High, Pasadena High School, and Rice Institute. As the years progress, his naivete and life's soul-searing sorrows leave him puzzled and wondering if God, after all, really has a plan for his life. The book's final chapters trace his search for employment and his quest to find his true love. Happily, the memoir's victorious conclusion provides a joyful answer to his questioning of God's care. Vicariously return to your own delightful childhood years--those long-ago days when life was safe and sacred, slow and serene, and virtually free from drugs, depravity, and demonized crime. Live once again in a world now gone forever.