This touching family saga is told by a woman who collected wild and all-too-true stories about her ancestors. From 1774 to 1970, from Northern Ireland to Philadelphia, Puerto Rico to Mexico, Brazil to Colombia and Algiers, this human drama of miracles and disasters comes to life in a you-are-there-style. What looks like a proper family memoir opens with illicit British nuptials, fears of eyes being poked out, running for survival and culture shock in Philadelphia. Later come naked chickens hanging in trees, loving a matador, stomping on tarantulas, and John Steinbeck hanging out with Uncle Charles in WWII. At one point a little girl hangs on a cliff, and at another time we hear, "Oh no! The roof blew off!" (It really did.) At the Vietnam War Memorial in contemporary Washington, D. C. the legacy of courage displayed by these five generations comes into clear focus. We are here because they were here.
