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Comments

• [1] anonyme from NY June 24, 2008 - 01:00PM

  I had a mentally ill and crazy father who was also highly respected professionally. I have a lot of siblings and we all have very detailed memories (not always in agmt) - i think this has to do with trauma.

  
  
• [2] S from New Haven, CT June 24, 2008 - 01:10PM

  I read this book and am from New Haven. Mr Dawidoff had the good luck to have a dedicated mother with a large, loving family of accomplishment. He grew up in a safe, loving home and went to the best schools. He visited his father one day a month in NYC. I tired of the author's sense of entitlement: the "why me?" stance. I also had a mentally ill father, and my childhood home was unsafe as a result. The author should be grateful every day that he escaped the illness that struck his father. He was safe and loved at home. He is a lucky man. His bio should be called: Lucky Man.

  
  
• [3] Julie from Brooklyn June 24, 2008 - 02:08PM

  My husband grew up in the 1970's listening to baseball games on the radio, and he, like Dawidoff, has an almost mystical memory of that time and the love for baseball and baseball stories that resulted. My husband, luckily, grew up in a stable home, but nonetheless, his childhood has a parallel to the baseball part of Dawidoff's story. There seems to be something to the author's point that hearing games is different than watching them. Perhaps this is a point to consider re. Lopate's other interview today on toddlers and TV.