As well as a probing examination of a country increasingly torn apart by religious fanaticism, Alan Croft's "Belfast: Tears and Laughter 1957-1977" is a beautifully composed autobiography which serves as a tale of innocence lost, as Croft documents the journey of a young man coming to terms with his adolescence in the midst of a culture of neverending violence. And yet in the end it is Croft's lighter touch that resonates: the human moments scattered along the way. The beleaguered postman menaced by a pack of thuggish dogs; the man who decides if he can't have a convertible, he'll just make one; and the chaos that ensues when three madcap Northern Irish teens are loosed upon the city of London. All of these await you within this memoir, each woven in alongside harrowing tragedy as a poignant reminder of how life goes on even in the most unforgiving of circumstances.