Publisher's Synopsis
Step back in time to experience hardscrabble Schenectady, NY, in the years leading up, through, and just after World War II through the eyes of a young boy fascinated with wedding veils, blue satin dresses, big screen movies, diamonds and anything else that glitters. Gary Grady loves beauty and glitz as much as he loves his alcoholic grandfather, his sweet mother and distant father. Most of all, however, he loves Billy, his best friend, and the idea of escaping poverty and the mean taunts of school mates to live in glamour in Hollywood where his true talents would finally be appreciated. In today's world, young Gary might define himself as "questioning," but for his father, teachers, the nuns at catechism class, and sometimes even Billy, his flamboyance and fascination with the theater and elegance, with sparkle and beauty, are traits to be squashed, ridden from his persona, denied even if doing so would destroy him.
