Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters

by Jean Shepherd

Paperback, 1976

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

Broadway (1976), Paperback, 352 pages

Description

A bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana and the basis of the movie A Christmas Story. Before Garrison Keillor and Spalding Gray there was Jean Shepherd: a master monologist and writer who spun the materials of his all-American childhood into immensely resonant--and utterly hilarious--works of comic art. Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories is a universal (and achingly funny) orchestration of Midwestern puberty rites, from the gut-wrenching playground antics of one Delbert Bumpus, to the supernal glow surrounding unapproachable high school beauty Daphne Bigelow, to the memorable disaster that was Shepherd's (and everyone else's) junior prom. A comic genius who bridges the gap between James Thurber and David Sedaris, Shepherd may have accomplished for Holden, Indiana, what Mark Twain did for Hannibal, Missouri.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Jenners26

My dad gave me this book when I was growing up, and I thought it was absolutely hilarious. I later found out that a few of the stories from this book were turned into the classic holiday film A Christmas Story. Just a wonderfully written, hilarious account of growing up -- with a tall tale aspect

to it that just elevates the stories to pure fun!

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LibraryThing member gryphondear

Starting with Delbert Bumpas and beyond the eponymous Wanda, Shepherd introduces us to the people who populated his formative years. Like *The Phantom of the Open Hearth* and *A Christmas Story*, *Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories* mines Shepherd's past and delivers the goods in such a way

that you cannot help but return time and again.

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LibraryThing member raizel

Jean Shepherd had a radio show on WOR in New York City every night in the early 1960s in which he talked for a half hour about life and his childhood. The stories in this book were originally published in Playboy Magazine.

LibraryThing member bookappeal

Jean Shepherd's stories are undeniably funny and he's a master of vividly describing the life of a kid growing up in the Midwest in the 50s but they're best taken in small doses. Together, they can become slightly repetitive. Still, some of Shepherd's lines are worthy of writing down and/or

memorizing and Ralphie will always be a beloved home-grown character for readers in Northwest Indiana.

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LibraryThing member unclebob53703

More hilarity as the author looks back on boyhood and adolescent misadventures. The title story is a scream.

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