Set against the lively backdrop of Everybody"s toyshop in Inchicore, Dublin, one word sums it up: trouble. But this vivid depiction of boyhood in the 1950s and 1960s, his parents mostly at loggerheads, especially his alcoholic father, as they bounced from sobriety to drunkenness, is never bitter. Early schooldays at the infamous Goldenbridge Convent, injured at age ten in an explosion, which kills his beloved only sister, and going to court in search of "Compo," are in turn distressing, sad, and hilarious. From the start to the heart-stopping finish after a summer working in St. James Hospital, we are drawn into his triumphs and disasters with laughter and sadness never far away.