Boom Town Boy: Coming of Age on Alaska's Lost Frontier

· Epicenter Press
Ebook
255
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

This is the witty, ironic, and deliciously outspoken coming-of-age memoir of Jack de Yonge set in Fairbanks, Alaska -- a once thriving little mining town slowly dying in the remote center of the vast territory in 1934. As Jack's dad liked say, no matter what direction you went out of town, you soon arrived in Nowhere.

Then, World War II breaks out, and the Japanese attack Alaska. The sleepy little river town springs back to life with the arrival of thousands of U.S. soldiers, Russian lend-lease pilots, and construction workers who keep the red-light district busy and the bars rocking around the clock.

The son of a hardwareman at the N.C. Company and a black Irish daughter of the gold rush, de Yonge is a fist-fighting, music-loving altar boy who discovers his own truths about sex, religion, racism, and how the world works. His earthy story describes how war arrives in a small Alaska town next to Nowhere--and nothing is ever the same again.

About the author

Jack de Yonge is a retired newspaper reporter-editor, political-environmental activist, and avid fly-fisherman who lives with his wife, Sonjia, in Concrete, Washington. De Yonge's journalism career took him to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, the Seattle Times, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.