This ones been sitting on my shelf for several years, too darn long. What was I waiting for? Douglas Bauer's THE BOOK OF FAMOUS IOWANS (1997) is a classic coming-of-age story, crafted by a master writer. It is narrated by a mature, thrice-married Will Vaughn, looking back at his small-town Iowa childhood, especially 1957, a pivotal year for him, when he was just eleven. It was the summer of his mother's discontent, when "she took up with Bobby Markum," a local baseball hero, whom Will idolized. Forty years later Will is still trying to understand how his beloved and beautiful young mother, Leanne, could have simply left him - and his father, Lewis. He re-examines what he knew of his parents' first meeting and courtship near an Air Force base in Cheyenne where his father was an aircraft mechanic and his mother was a singer in a local club, and how they married hurriedly before returning to Iowa where his father took over the family farm. He considers how his family was different from their mostly Dutch Reform neighbors - non-believers - exemplified in his crusty, widowed grandmother, who lives upstairs in the family farmhouse. The characters here are all finely drawn and fully realized, from the boy Will to his parents and grandmother, and Bobby Markum. There's even a neighbor kid, Will's friend, who is a devout believer but curses like a sailor. Made me laugh out loud. Mostly though, this is a dead serious story about a boy's accelerated journey into an adult world he's not quite ready for, and it is a heartbreaking trip.

I was caught up in the Vaughn family's story from page one. It's that kind of book. My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )