A bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana and the basis of the movie A Christmas Story.

"Mr. Shepherd has the true satirist's grip on his pen: he is humorous, sympathetic, and ironic all at once."--Boston Globe

Before Garrison Keillor and Spalding Gray there was Jean Shepherd: a master monologist and writer who spun the materials of his all-American childhood into immensely resonant--and utterly hilarious--works of comic art. Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories represents one of the peaks of his achievement, a compound of irony, affection, and perfect detail that speaks across generations.

Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories is a universal (and achingly funny) orchestration of Midwestern puberty rites. From the gut-wrenching playground antics of one Delbert Bumpus and the almighty sacrifice of the Easter ham, to taffy-apple binges at the state fair and the supernatural glow surrounding unapproachable high school beauty Daphne Bigelow, to the memorable disaster that was Shepherd's (and everyone else's) junior prom--these are some of the archetypal legends of childhood that Shepherd evokes from his nostalgic Indiana muse.

A timeless and enduring classic, Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories captures the sweet cacophonous roar of youth tempered with the wit and honesty of a grown boy