Audiobook8 hours
Growing Up
Written by Russell Baker
Narrated by Corey M. Snow
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
In this heartfelt memoir by the Masterpiece Theatre host, Pulitzer Prize winner, and groundbreaking New York Times columnist, Russell Baker traces his youth in the mountains of rural Virginia.
When Baker was only five, his father died. His mother, strong-willed and matriarchal, never looked back. After all, she had three children to raise. These were Depression years, and Mrs. Baker moved her fledgling family to Baltimore. Baker's mother was determined her children would succeed, and we know her regimen worked for Russell. He did everything from delivering papers to hustling subscriptions for the Saturday Evening Post. As is often the case, early hardships made the man.
When Baker was only five, his father died. His mother, strong-willed and matriarchal, never looked back. After all, she had three children to raise. These were Depression years, and Mrs. Baker moved her fledgling family to Baltimore. Baker's mother was determined her children would succeed, and we know her regimen worked for Russell. He did everything from delivering papers to hustling subscriptions for the Saturday Evening Post. As is often the case, early hardships made the man.
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Reviews for Growing Up
Rating: 3.9204546306818178 out of 5 stars
4/5
176 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Good life story of the early years of this reporter and writer.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I enjoyed the book until it reaches his time in the Navy. It became boring from that point until he marries.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It was very interesting to read Baker's memoir so soon after finishing Harry Crews' book. Both men born in the south, in the mod-1920s; both lost their fathers very soon and both somehow scrambled into college educations through seeming miracles; both served in the military and even took advantage of the GI Bill to go to college. The differences are also stunning: Baker's story is of a climb by his mother and other family members back into the middle class, a climb so successful that Baker became a respected columnist for the "good gray NY Times". Fittingly, his prose lacks the color and power of Crews' writing; although Baker is a gifted writer, he feels more restrained, more tame.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excellent time piece, more insightful that a history. You get a glimpse of the nuances of life during the Great Depression, the hopes, dreams, shortfalls, and the disappointments that make up real life. i would highly recommend this book to anyone but especially to history buffs interested in America in the early to mid 20th century, not for its factual construction of the era but for its intimate details that are lost in between the facts.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A terrific autobiography – even if you’ve never heard of journalist Russell Baker. His account of growing up in the 1930’s and 40’s is very funny, poignant, sometimes tragic, and honest. Baker avoids the easy sentimental route, and really brings to life personal and historic events. A Pulitzer Prize winner and a classic.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of those seminal books through which one can connect with with the childhood and coming of age of another. It inspired me, more than any other book, to write my own memoirs--with no expectation of the success achieved by this marvelous book.