My Fathers' Houses

In this remarkable memoir, Steven V. Roberts tells the story of his grandparents, his parents, and his own life by vividly bringing a period, a place, and a remarkable family into focus. The period was the forties and fifties, when the children of immigrants were striving to become American in a booming postwar world. The place was one block in Bayonne, New Jersey, and the house was a home that Roberts's grandfather built with his own hands. This compelling story captures a sense of change and continuity, of breaking new ground using the tools and traditions of America's honored past.