Point of View

A first person narrative is absolutely essential for this tale, and Eddie Ryan is the perfect narrator for the job. As a Catholic from a cohesive working-class community on the South Side of Chicago, Eddie is living the events of the late 1950s and early 1960s through the eyes of an adolescent who is not only experiencing the usual and natural pangs of being a teenager, but is "enduring" a Catholic high school education which often leaves him frustrated and almost angry. As if dealing with pimples, dandruff and body odor were not enough, Eddie has to struggle through Latin and religion classes, taught by boring Brothers of the St. Bremmer Order. Through all of this, it is absolutely critical that the reader has intimate insight into all of Eddie's thoughts, fears, anxieties, and pains, most of which he cannot reveal in conversation with others. Through...