Secret frequencies : a New York education / John Skoyles. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Skoyles, John.

Series:

American lives

American lives Secret frequencies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Skoyles, John--Childhood and youth.

Skoyles, John.

New York (N.Y.)--Biography.

New York (N.Y.).

Teenage boys--New York (State)--New York--Biography.

Teenage boys.

New York (N.Y.)--Social life and customs--20th century.

City and town life--New York (State)--New York.

City and town life.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (238 p. )

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, c2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"In his memoir, John Skoyles guides us through 1960s New York, a city we only thought we knew. Against a backdrop of late-night radio airwaves featuring talk-show kings like Long John Nebel, the sixteen-year-old pairs up with his Uncle Fred, a Mob associated and man-about-town who presses him into the seamy underworld of con games and call girls. At the same time, his Aunt Linda finds him a job as a messenger at Paramount Pictures on Times Square, where she works as a secretary and where Michael Caine and Jane Fonda make cameo appearances." "From the bars and swank apartments of Manhattan's Upper East Side to 42nd Street flophouses and haunts like Hubert's Freak Show, Skoyles comes face to face with New York's most comic, absurd, and sometimes dangerous seductions."

"As his aunt notices his transformation, she reveals a shocking side of her own that will twist and charge his journey into adulthood, and she and Fred engage in an escalating rivalry for his allegiance." "Secret Frequencies spins from deadpan hilarity to unflinching bleakness in graceful turns. With pathos, wit, and searing realism, this memoir joins the ranks of classic coming-of-age narratives."--Jacket.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

1-281-37643-4

9786611376437

0-8032-0340-3