Bill Henderson did most of his growing up in the decade of the tail-finned car, Eisenhower, rock and roll, the threat of atomic annihilation, and pervasive silence. This anguished yet loving portrait of a child of the fifties and his father reveals the secret life of that decade. "A valediction of the 50s."-Rosellen Brown, Chicago Tribune "A powerfully moving book."-Anne Tyler "An open-hearted, funny, affecting account of family life during the silent 1950s."-Publishers Weekly "Bill Henderson is akin to Tom Sawyer, to Puddinhead Wilson."-William Hogan, San Francisco Chronicle