The O’connell Boy: Educating the Wolf Child, an Irish-american Memoir 1932-1950

The O’Connell Educating “The Wolf Child” is a vivid memoir that tells of the author’s Irish-American youth in a group foster home operated by a strict “lace curtain” Irish widow. He spends his high school years with his Irish granny “on the other side of the tracks.” With wit and irony, O’Connell uses candid dialogue and descriptions to tell his unusual story of group foster home life and his later “battle of wits” with his aging grandmother. This memoir delivers a trip back in time, touches on an orphan’s feelings of abandonment, and provides scenes of “growing up” that range from the outrageous to the sublime. “Tom O’Connell connects with readers soul to soul.” Jordan -Rich, WBZ Radio, Boston.