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The Next Better Place
Memories of My Misspent Youth
Paperback,
288 pages
ISBN: 9781565124363
(1565124367)
Published by Algonquin Books
$13.95(US)
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about The Next Better Place
In 1959, at the age of eleven, Michael Keith ditched his relatively stable life with his mother and sisters in Albany, New York, and surreptitiously set off hitchhiking out West with his estranged, alcoholic dad. His memoir, told without sentimentality in the funny, world-wise voice of the young boy he once was, describes the bizarre characters they encounter in the rundown rooming houses and homeless missions of Pittsburgh and Ft. Worth, where they hole up as Michael's father works odd jobs to make enough money for them to move on; in the carnivals of the Midwest and the casinos of Las Vegas, where Michael dreams of Hollywood stardom; and in every two-bit town along the way, where they attend AA meetings just for a cup of coffee and a decent doughnut.
The Next Better Place explores the fine line between wanderlust and compulsion, between running away and arriving, and will resonate for anyone who has enjoyed the work of Tobias Wolff, Jack Kerouac, and William Kennedy.
about Michael C. Keith
Michael C. Keith is the author of a number of books on the subject of broadcast media-radio in particular. A senior lecturer of communication at Boston College, his books include Voices in the Purple Haze, Sounds in the Dark, Signals in the Air, and Talking Radio. He is a former broadcaster and the past chair of education for the Museum of Broadcast Communications.
More about the author
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