Holy Days, by Patricia Goodwin, is a difficult book. It is a novel that has the unmistakable feel of a memoir. Gloria Wisher is born into an Italian-American family in East Boston, where she feels loved and protected by her large, loving extended family. From this safe nest, she is uprooted when her immediate family moves to Revere, Boston's gritty suburb.



Moving is an uprooting experience for a child at best. Moving from a city to a suburb can be a cultural shock. Growing up an intelligent woman

Holy Days, by Patricia Goodwin, is a difficult book. It is a novel that has the unmistakable feel of a memoir. Gloria Wisher is born into an Italian-American family in East Boston, where she feels loved and protected by her large, loving extended family. From this safe nest, she is uprooted when her immediate family moves to Revere, Boston's gritty suburb.



Moving is an uprooting experience for a child at best. Moving from a city to a suburb can be a cultural shock. Growing up an intelligent woman in a family that does not value education for girls is difficult. Becoming a woman during the 1960s was fraught with difficulties and clashes with parental mores and morals. But adding sexual abuse to the mix makes for a toxic environment, one that could easily destroy a young woman in so many ways.



So Holy Days is a triumphant novel at its heart. Goodwin describes the North Shore area, which Gloria explores as she grows old enough to do so, and immediately puts anyone old enough to remember the 60s right back there! There is a caution for the reader: That attractive young girl? The one who, with her girl friend in tow, is laughing and flirting, seemingly without a care in the world? She may be concealing the most shocking secrets - shameful things done to her in her home. And her reactions may be confused as she sometimes experiences pleasure as well as shame, and wonders if there is something wrong with her, if she somehow invites the abuse.



Holy Days stands as a tribute to its author and to all the young girls who have managed to grow up strong despite hideous secrets in their pasts.