Empty Stockings

 

DENIS HAMILL

Stats for my copy: Mass market Pocket Star Books, 2003.

How acquired: Via Book Mooch.

First line: Rory Maguire helped get Jack Kennedy elected president.

(For Goodreads synopsis, scroll down.)

My thoughts: A fascinating look at tenement life in 1960s New York. Fourteen year old Rory is such a well defined character. He goes to school, he works after school, and his earnings contribute to supporting the family. His father is a veteran who was wounded in the war, and then later was injured on the job and is now in a wheelchair or struggling with crutches. His mother works in a laundry and does her best to keep home and hearth running.

Rory’s father was in the Merchant Marine during the war. I’ve never heard much about the Merchant Marine, and had always thought it was a branch of the Marine Corps that served at sea. I didn’t know that the Merchant Marine was not actually considered part of the U.S. Military, and its veterans received none of the benefits that soldiers and sailors did. They were not given veteran status until 1988!

Rory is proud of his father, and desperate to find someone who will help him get the benefits he should be entitled to, and this drives much of the story. In the process, he learns a lot about the Merchant Marine, and we learn right along with him. The book left me wanting to learn more, and sent me searching for non-fiction about the Merchant Marine.

But I digress. EMPTY STOCKINGS is about more than that, of course. It’s about the mourning and heartache that followed President Kennedy’s assassination. It’s about the day to day life of a young boy who wants to be a journalist. A young boy falling for a pretty girl, worrying about his family not having Christmas, trying to steer his younger brother away from the rough crowd he hangs out with, from gang life.

Well written and mesmerizing, I enjoyed this book so much more than I had anticipated. I also teared up at the end, which I so had not anticipated.

Synopsis from Goodreads: Rory Maguire is a fourteen-year-old boy looking for a better life for himself and his family in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Harry, had a terrible accident that cost him his job, his ability to walk, and his dignity. His brother, Dermot, is hanging out with a local gang called the Shamrocks, and his two little sisters are growing hungry in the Maguires' frigid tenement apartment. Rory's dreams of becoming a writer seem hopelessly out of reach, as does winning the heart of Carol, the daughter of a prominent Brooklyn lawyer. What Rory needs most this Christmas is a miracle -- and even though he can't bring his hero John F. Kennedy back to life, he might be able to give his father, an ex-merchant marine, the recognition he deserves...and offer his family the gift of hope, health, and happiness for years to come.