An Irish-American Memory
"The true epitaph is not the message etched into a headstone, but the memory that resides in the swelling of the heart," Smith says as this story begins. "Each of you might have hundreds of memories, but you have to make sure you find the right one, the one that speeds the blood."
'A Song For Mary' is such a memory. As Dennis Smith ages from seven to twenty-five, we see him learn life's indelible lessons - how to dodge the slaps of crotchety nuns, wallop a punching bag, refuse to "take crap" from anyone, steal a longed-for kiss, and finally, stare into death's face.
Street denizen, truant, and hard-living thrill seeker, Smith was, in many ways, a young man slated for failure. For his salvation, he could count on only two things. One was his mother, who at a cost to her own dreams, sometimes hilariously, always lovingly, pulled him by the ear into adulthood. The other was his Irish-Catholic heritage, which even in his darkest moment whispered to him of success, of the power of faith and family and the force of the written word.
This is not just a tale of immigrant life, but a universal story of a mother's love for her child and a child's determination to do his mother proud.
