Home at Last
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Around a curve a roaring steam engine plunged, coughing ugly gray smoke. The engineer blew an emergency whistle like Morse code, but simplified for morons: "Get off the tracks, you fool, I can't stop this engine. Get off!" Boys swam in this putrid yellow water on hot summer days. Health warnings went unheeded even when there was talk of another polio outbreak.. . .Dunked over and over, the boys held their breaths and pinched their noses until their lungs seemed to burst. She is home, in her own home, and she thinks of the past year in her tiny, too-hot, too-cold, plaster-crumbling alley home with all its scrapes and bites.
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About the Book
In the unsettling years after the great Depression and the Second World War, young Ben Warren and his family face a crisis of an uncertain future. Where will home be? His parents are at odds about what that future should be. Their decision to move from a backward rural village to a big city, Pittsburgh, makes possible attending better schools. Ben meets Jack, who becomes his best friend, and the two boys set out on many adventures against a background of a polio epidemic gripping the city. Their challenge is to be really true to themselves as they face adversities, many of which are of their own creation. Jack fears his family will be forced to leave Roslyn Place, a peaceful setting; Ben’s family must settle into life in an old house, where they discover that home is “an estate of mind” promising a vital future of hope and joy.
About the Author
William A. Francis, a retired professor of English, taught for many years at the University of Akron. He has published essays and interviews on Midwestern and Southern literature. Home at Last is set in his native Pittsburgh. A graduate of Duquesne University, he went on to Case Western Reserve University for graduate studies.