{"product_id":"my-childhood-in-pieces-a-stand-up-comedy-a-skokie-elegy-edward-hirsch-hardcover","title":"My Childhood in Pieces: A Stand-Up Comedy, a Skokie Elegy -- Edward Hirsch, Hardcover","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the award-winning poet, dark comic microbursts of prose deliver a whole childhood, at the hands of an aspiring middle-class Jewish family whose hard-boiled American values and wit were the forge of a poet's coming-of-age.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"My grandparents taught me to write my sins on paper and cast them into the water. . . . They didn't expect an entire book,\" Hirsch says in the \"prologue\" to this glorious festival of knife-sharp observations. In microchapters--sometimes only a single scathing sentence long--with titles like \"Call to Breakfast,\" \"Pay Cash,\" \"The Sorrow of Manly Sports,\" and \"Aristotle on Lawrence Avenue,\" Eddie's gambling father, Ruby, son of a white metal smelter, schools him and his sister in blackjack; Eddie's mom bangs pots to wake the kids to a breakfast of cold cereal; Uncle Bob, in the collection business, is heard threatening people on the phone; and nobody suffers fools. In this household, Eddie learned to jab with his left and cross with his right, never to kid a kidder, and how to sneak out at night. Affectionate, deadpan, and exuberant, steeped in Yiddishkeit and Midwestern practicality, Hirsch's laugh-and-cry performance animates a heartbreaking odyssey, from the cradle to the day he leaves home, armed with sorrow and a huge store of poetic wit.\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Edward Hirsch\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Knopf Publishing Group\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 6\/3\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/strong\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWeight:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.1 lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9\" H x 6.1\" L x 1.3\" W\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780593802823\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Flowerburst","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50564503011632,"sku":"9780593802823","price":29.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2712\/8368\/files\/9780593802823.jpg?v=1775125567","url":"https:\/\/flowerburst.co\/products\/my-childhood-in-pieces-a-stand-up-comedy-a-skokie-elegy-edward-hirsch-hardcover","provider":"Flowerburst","version":"1.0","type":"link"}