The novel captures life in the years following World War II before cell phones and the internet.
It takes us back to a time when people looked out for one another; a time when small-town values still mattered.
The novel does for those years what Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn did for an earlier time.
The novel is also a celebration of who we were back then.
It's a joyous hayride, sometimes scary, sometimes sad, sometimes hilarious.
It will cause you a lot of smiles and a few tears as w.