{"product_id":"book-auhj","title":"The Crazyladies of Pearl Street","description":"\u003cb\u003eLegendary writer Trevanian brings readers his most personal novel yet: a funny, deeply  felt, often touching coming-of-age novel set in 1930s America. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Six-year-old  Jean-Luc LaPointe, his little sister, and his spirited but vulnerable  young mother have been abandoned—again—by his father, a charming con  artist. With no money and nowhere else to go, the LaPointes create a  fragile nest in a tenement building at 238 North Pearl Street in Albany,  New York. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor the next eight years, through the Great Depression and  Second World War, they live in the heart of the Irish slum, surrounded  by ward heelers, unemployment, and grinding poverty. Pearl Street is  also home to a variety of “crazyladies”: Miss Cox, the feared and  ridiculed teacher who ignites Jean-Luc’s imagination; Mrs. Kane, who  runs a beauty parlor\/fortune-telling salon in the back of her  husband’s grocery store; Mrs. Meehan, the desperate, harried matriarch  of a thuggish family across the street; lonely Mrs. McGivney, who spends  every day tending to her catatonic husband, a veteran of the Great War;  and Jean-Luc’s own unconventional, vivacious mother. Colorful though it  is, Jean-Luc never stops dreaming of a way out of the slum, and his  mother’s impossible expectations are both his driving force and his  burden.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e As  legendary writer Trevanian lovingly re-creates the neighborhood of his  youth in this funny, deeply moving coming-of-age novel, he also paints a  vivid portrait of a neighborhood, a city, a nation in turmoil, and the  people waiting for a better life to begin. It’s a heartfelt and  unforgettable look back at one child’s life in the 1930s and ’40s, a story that will  be remembered long after the last page is turned.","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49341213278512,"sku":"BDauhj","price":14.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/236292-auhj-Square.jpg?v=1734057058","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-auhj","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}