This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolff

This memoir, which begins in 1955, is about a boy whose parents divorced -- Toby lives with his mom -- his brother lives with his dad. Separated geographically and emotionally, Toby grows up close to his mom...until she gets married. Women were subservient and forgiving of their menfolk in the 1950s-60s in ways we cannot understand today. 

This book lets us peek into the life of a (white) kid, who spends several years in Concrete, Wash., near Seattle. There are misfits, and rabble-rousers. There's alcoholism and some brutality from Toby's stepfather (a real bastard!). There's so much detail in this book that it feels like you've stepped into the scenes as a bystander. 

Either Stephen King or Mary Karr wrote about this memoir by Tobias Wolff, and I've wanted to read it ever since. The book pubbed in 1989. I highly recommend it. It walks you thru the life of a boy with a troubled past, troubled present, and how he deals with so much --- bullying at school, violence and jealousy at home, a distant dad, the loss of his only brother (for several years).