The Gift

The Gift

Author: Pete Hamill
Category: Fiction/Literature
ISBN: 9780316011891
Format : Hardcover
Publisher : Little Brown & Co

  

Originally published in 1973 and long unavailable, this novel now returns to print in an edition that features a bound-in reading group guide. It's an evocative, emotionally involving tale of fathers and sons, loss and yearning, forgiveness and approbationFrom The Publisher:To a young sailor named Pete-on leave for the holidays, temporarily liberated from the specter of war in Korea-Christmas cheer seems in short supply.Pete is back in his old Brooklyn neighborhood, experiencing firsthand that the girl he left behind evidently meant what she said in the Dear John letter she sent him. He's back in the dreary Seventh Avenue apartment that his mother can ill afford to decorate for Christmas. And he's back facing off with Billy, the gruff Irish factory worker who is his father yet seems forever a stranger-until, on Christmas Eve, Pete pays his first visit to Rattigan's, the local bar where his father hangs out, the place where Billy seems most fully alive. It is in this humble setting, in a casual exchange between father and son, that Pete receives the gift that will make a lifetime of difference.About The Author:Pete Hamill started his career at the New York Post in 1960. He is the author of seven novels and two collections of stories, and his writing has appeared in most national magazines. He has been a columnist for many years, and currently writes for New York's Daily News He lives in New York City with his wife, writer Fukiko Aoki.