Book excerpt: This story takes the reader on a journey of how growing up in an Italian family in a predominantly Italian neighborhood within the protective glow of the boy's family and the local Mob bosses, as well as learning how to survive in the streets of the East New York section of Brooklyn forms the character of a young man. The era of racism, the dawning of rock and roll music, and an angelic visit - all events that helped shape the man as he is today. The story demonstrates how all of these events affected the writer personally and deeply. The reader is engrossed by the struggle of the boy trying to heed the morals and values instilled by family and church, keeping those intact while attempting to balance them with societal demands and the clash of surviving the mean streets of Brooklyn.