cover image THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE LAST KID PICKED

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE LAST KID PICKED

David Benjamin, . . Random, $23.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-375-50728-1

The exhilaration and terrors of 1950s Saturday matinee moviegoing have rarely been better described than in this charming, nostalgic memoir. At a screening of Ben-Hur, second-grader Benjamin is caught by an usher—"one of the most powerful institutions on earth... the last gasp of the Gestapo"—tossing Raisinettes to his friend Chucky. Small, acutely observed moments like this characterize Benjamin's poignant recollections of growing up in the Midwest. The author, a former editor of the MansfieldNews in Massachusetts, is at his best describing some farcical calamity—trying to get a snapping turtle off of his finger by inadvertently offering his nose (it works)—or observing the minutiae of smalltown social status, like the uproar in a Catholic school when the son of a wealthy parish family gets to skip a grade. Benjamin lovingly details the pop culture of the time (the sexual charms of Doris Day in Calamity Jane; the violin crescendos in Pillow Talk), which serves as backdrop and context for his own schoolyard adventures. While there are some girls here, Benjamin's world is mostly made up of boys. Numerous recent books on growing up male in America have made important contributions to gender studies, and this memoir, in its own unassuming way, does, too, by making vivid the contradictions and complexities of being a boy in the post-WWII era. Agent, Scovil Chichak Galen. (Mar. 12)