Ruckus begins in 1954 in Worcester, Massachusetts. -- Nicholas Gage, author of Eleni, A Place for Us, and Greek Fire..
Celebrity lawyer Richard Golub tells his raucous tale of his errant youth with relish, humor and disarming candor.
Ruckus is an absorbing and affecting memoir of an aspiring son of immigrants who pursued the American dream with chutzpah and has the scars to prove it.
Specific to its place and time, Ruckus will nevertheless resonate with anyone who has longed for the unattainable and someone out of reach, rebelled and found brotherhood in a group of outsiders.
Early on well known writers have compared this non-fiction work to coming-of-age classics such as Goodbye, Columbus and The Catcher in the Rye.
Golub depicts the former mill town as decaying yet alive with weirdness, dominating the behavior of its inhabitants.
Ruckus\' main character is the city of Worcester itself.
Binding all these escapades is Richard\'s tortured romance with Linda - who, though she periodically allows him to enter her world, she continues to play hard to get.
Ruckus tracks Richard as he gets bounced from one school after another, rumbles with a Christian gang, endures humiliating summer jobs, and makes a screwball road-trip to Hollywood.
They call themselves The Crazy Eight.
He also forms lifelong friendships with a 7 kids who teach him to swear, gamble, drink, smoke and have sex.
Richard is smitten and he won\'t give up.
Linda\'s family tries to keep the precocious grocer\'s son away from their prize possession.
That snowy, moonlit night, while hidden in the straw, a rich girl, Linda Paul, French-kisses Richard, igniting a love affair that will last for years.
They move to a residential neighborhood and 12 year old Richard is invited on a hayride.
The Golub\'s live upstairs until Richard\'s mom comes into a small inheritance.
Richard\'s father runs a grocery store frequented by winos, hookers, and welfare recipients.
Ruckus begins in 1954 in Worcester, Massachusetts
