What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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The GI Generation
SOLVED: Non-Fiction
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SOLVED. Non-fiction memoir about a boy growing up during the Depression & WWII in the American South, possibly Kentucky? [s]
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Mark
(last edited Apr 26, 2019 09:23PM)
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Apr 26, 2019 06:15PM
This book was most likely published in the 1990s, no later than 1999 and probably a few years earlier. I remember it being a brisk read and containing some moving and thought-provoking anecdotes about life in the Jim Crow South for a young white teenager who loved jazz, the Jimmie Lunceford band, and played in a swing orchestra himself...there was a particular story in the book in which the author's parents tell him to go deliver a payment to their grocer, "the Jew Ben Greene" to which the boy does, asking "are you the Jew Ben Greene?" The grocer responds "just Ben Greene, thank you, I won't tie your religion to your name if you don't tie one to mine" (best recollection) and I remember how simply and breezily the author contributed this little life lesson without hammering home the details or embellishing. No amount of Google searching variations of the above dialogue has helped me and my library in Joliet, IL no longer carries the book, for I've scoured the shelves trying to find it. I think the state in which the author grew up was Kentucky, but of course I could be wrong on that as well as the grocer's name, etc. Any help would be much appreciated!
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I think I found it! The only thing that's slightly different is the publication date, which is 2000.The GI Generation: A Memoir by Frank F. Mathias.
You can read a preview here:
https://books.google.com/books?id=jJM...
The excerpt you remember is on page 221:
"I'm not Ben Greenstein the Jew; I'm just plain Ben Greenstein. Don't tack my religion on my name if you don't tack your religion on yours.”
Wow, thanks so much, Mai! I thought I'd hit a total dead-end, this is amazing! After almost twenty years, I finally have an answer to this thanks to Mai and the Goodreads community! You've made this a very happy afternoon! Sincerely grateful,
Mark
You're welcome!You remembered many details so that made it a lot easier to find :-)
I hope you enjoy reading this book again!
