1 option
A woman of uncertain character : the amorous and radical adventures of my mother Jennie (who always wanted to be a respectable Jewish mom) by her bastard son / Clancy Sigal.
Van Pelt Library PS3569.I4116 Z46 2006
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Sigal, Clancy.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Sigal, Clancy--Childhood and youth.
- Sigal, Clancy.
- Persily, Jennie.
- Authors, American--20th century--Biography.
- Authors, American.
- Jewish families.
- Mothers and sons.
- Illinois--Chicago.
- Depressions--1929--Illinois--Chicago.
- Depressions.
- Mothers and sons--Illinois--Chicago.
- Jewish families--Illinois--Chicago--Biography.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- Autobiographies.
- Physical Description:
- xiii, 289 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm
- Edition:
- First Carroll and Graf edition.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Carroll & Graf; [Berkeley, Calif.] : Distributed by Publishers Group West, 2006.
- Summary:
- This memoir is about Clancy Sigal's intense attachment to his fast-talking, redhaired, sexy, unwed mother Jennie, a firebrand union organizer, and his roaring Oedipal rivalry with his mostly absent father Leo who carries a gun to social occasions. In the wide-open, violent Chicago of the Depression and war years, Jennie, in her Cuban heels and flaming lipstick, is a single mother on welfare trying to raise a wild rebellious son in a twilight world between law and lawlessness. She is defiant, vulnerable, sexually alive, high stepping, man-loving, woman-friendly, wisecracking -- fearlessly facing down hostile scabs armed with shotguns and clubs. Along with the portrait of Jennie, this book tells a rollicking, profane, and gritty tale of bottom-feeding street life, race riots, riding the rails, and what happens when a gang boy is mistakenly sent to an all-girls' high school.
- Contents:
- 1 A Chat with Grandma 1
- 2 First Memories: Red Hair, Ruby Lips 9
- 3 Jennie, Dowun Sowuth 15
- 4 Windy City Blues 31
- 5 The Heart Is a Gregarious Hunter 49
- 6 Ring Wise 81
- 7 Bum Heaven 105
- 8 Jennie and the Women 119
- 9 Die, Yankee Dog! 155
- 10 Old Folks at Home 177
- 11 Among the Amazons 199
- 12 To Name Is to Empower 215
- 13 Divorce, Chicago Style 223
- 14 Reds 239
- 15 Venus, Released 255
- 16 Percy Comes Home 269.
- Notes:
- Includes index.
- ISBN:
- 0786717483
- OCLC:
- 66438702
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.