<P><B>A glorious exploration of working class consciousness, family ties and tensions, memory, misadventure, and redemption</B></P> <p>An extraordinary tour de force of working class fiction, this is a blackly comic, moving tale of real lives, misadventures, and family. Reported entirely by the protagonist, Grace, a semi-literate 40-something mother, the novel is soaked in humor and empathy as we follow her precarious family life. Grace cares for Sean, her grandson, and Vincent, her son, who wants to join the army. She lives in fear that Francis, her drug addict daughter and mother to Sean, will come back and take the boy away from her. In the spirit of<I> The True History of the Kelly Gang</I> by Peter Carey, the book is written in Grace's inimitable patois, with often hilarious and moving effect.