The Story of My Life So Far: A Happy Childhood

In 1971, ten-year-old Charlie Foran handed in a Grade Five writing project called The Story of My Life (so far). In this revised and expanded version of that early effort, award-winning author Charles Foran relates the story of his boyhood, told from a boy's perspective. Dropped squarely into the soul and psyche of a child -- a creature absorbed with nicknames and swear words, God and sin, girls in skirts and his own bulging pants -- we see the world as only a six- or seven-year-old can, a place where the imagination is fantastical and unfettered and connections, often cosmic, rarely logical, flow as naturally as thoughts and words.

At age five, Charlie worries about getting lost in an "apartment store". At seven, the mysteries of first communion having been revealed, Charlie finds he can no longer eat baloney sandwiches without thinking of The Body of Christ -- and barf. At eight, Charlie reasons that his soaked running shoes will giveaway to his mother that he kissed a girl down by the at ten, he awakens to the realization that words can cause more pain than punches, especially when the target seems defenseless.