Growing Up

“Now studying my own monumental mess with the rewrite man’s brutal eye, I immediately saw the story that was struggling to get out: Three strong women and weak man living through hard times—can they give him the strength he needs to survive?” 

This quote from the Foreword demonstrates Baker’s capacity to look at himself and his life with the critical eye he develops in the process of growing up. He will refer to this developing capacity at critical moments in his life—when he begins to feel superior to adults, and when he begins to question them. Here, he turns his critical eye on himself. This quote also announces a main theme of the book: the role of women in his life.

“In all this large cast there is no one famous. This made the writing especially satisfying for I have spent most of my long life in journalism writing about famous people, and it is good finally to feel that perhaps I may have prolonged life for a few people who deserve to be famous though nobody has ever heard of them.” 

Baker writes affectionately of his large family, whether describing their foibles or gifts. Throughout his book, he highlights the small, everyday kindnesses he witnesses—Uncle Allen buying Baker’s first magazine, Uncle Harold recognizing and honoring Doris’s desire to be pretty and have pretty things, Herb’s patient tolerance of Baker’s adolescent resentment. None of these people make the news, but their actions improve, and sometimes transform, the lives of those around them, and their generosity and decency during difficult times is a lesson for all readers.

“In that time when I had known her best, my mother had hurled herself at life with chin thrust forward, eyes blazing, and an energy that made her seen always on the run.” 

Here, Baker captures the essence of his mother at her strongest. She was perpetually in motion, if not literally then in her thoughts, constantly strategizing her next move. His mother turned much of her energy on Baker, pulling him out of his indecision and laziness.