Train from Thompsonville

Toward the end of the Depression, the Ludaks struggled with jobs, ethnic hostility,and widespread class prejudice in their upstate New York factory hometown ofThompsonville. But life for their daughter Joanna proves wide and adventurous;jubilant, if sometimes terrifying. Her coming-of-age as a Polish Catholic, blue-collar,scrubbed but culturally hobbled youngster is a riveting fictional odyssey of painfulconfrontations with both natal and dominant community values. Into this turbulentmix, America's entrance into World War II brings further lifestyle changes anddisruptive values into Thompsonville. The family nexus cannot hold. Uncle Sam andAunt Albina reach for the prize of the American brass ring. While Joanna's motherBertha resonates to their success and strives to emulate their example, Dad Ludakmeanders in his noman's land of bitter unresolved conflicts. Joanna alone promisesto approach the self-actualization that has always been her goal.