It's summertime in St. Louis in 1933, and it's hot. So hot that the young memoirist says "the only good thing about the St. Louis sun is when it really gets going it melts the streets and you can just dig a finger in and scoop out a hunk and chew the black tar same as Wrigley's." Well, life was cruel in depression days and a kid has to take his enjoyment wherever he can find it. Aaron also finds sustenance in the food ads of a magazine later in his story when he has been left on his own in a run-down-hotel-turned-dancehall (and who knows what else). The oppressive heat and humidity coupled with gnawing hunger play a big role in Hotchner's story.

Despite the gravity of his situation, the author has a lighthearted outlook that makes his memoirs a joy to read. The depression hit hard all over our country. Aaron's story was just one example of what a family had to do to survive. Younger brother Sullivan got left with relatives while the parents tried to scrape by any way they could. Aaron writes humorously about his father fighting for concessions (i.e., free rent) in the decrepit places they lived in until they had to skip out on the landlord. He almost made it seem like an adventure, but occasionally he'd lament the fact that he had attended 11 different grade schools in his 12 short years.

A.E. Hotchner was one of the lucky ones who survived with his sense of humor intact. King of the Hill was followed by the continuing saga of the 16-year-old Aaron in Looking for Miracles. He is still irrepressibly optimistic and resourceful as he works as a camp counselor in a remote central Missouri area, despite the fact that he had never been out of the city. You'll laugh out loud in many places in these two books, but will also be made aware of just how precarious life was in the 1930's for many Americans. ( )

A. E. Hotchner, friend of such folks as Ernest Hemingway and Paul Newman, has written a memoir of his life as an eleven year old boy during the Depression in St. Louis, and as a sixteen year old camp counselor years later. Young Aaron and his parents are living in a hotel in a single room, until his mother has to go to a sanitorium for TB and his father has to go on the road to sell watches, leaving Aaron alone to fend for himself until they return. Hotchner tells the story in the voice of an eleven year old, and tells the second story in the voice of a sixteen year old, which I found extremely impressive. This was an interesting snapshot of Depression-era St. Louis, and I thought it was a fascinating read. ( )