Book review: ‘My Mother’s Son’

of the best coming-of-age films is “Stand By Me,” adapted from a Stephen King novella. It tells the story of four boys and one transformative summer. David Hirshberg’s My Mother’s Son (Fig Tree Books) has a very similar feel. It transports the reader to 1952 — a similar time period to that of “Stand By Me” — to explore the defining year in a man’s life, when he begins evolving from a boy into a man. The book opens in the present day. A Bostonian, Joel is retiring from a career in radio, which triggers his reminiscences to some 60 years earlier. The Korean War is on, future presidents are running for national office, a Jewish community is dealing with the fallout of the Holocaust […]