Classics of Dubuque Literature
Robert Byrne. Memories of a Non-Jewish Childhood. New York: Lyle Stuart. 1970. Fiction. 192 pages.
“A most unusual novel about growing up Catholic in Dubuque, Iowa.” Author Robert Byrne explains, “The book is a blend of theology and toilet humor, as was my childhood.”
Compared in reviews to Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.
Excerpt, chapter one, part one:
Normally my mother had to resort to violence to get me out of bed, but one morning I was on my feet dressing with the first rays of the sun. In only forty-five minutes I would make my debut as an altar boy in the big church, having completed the initiation of serving a dozen early Masses in the nuns’ chapel. I should have been dreading the mistakes I was bound to make but I was too excited over something else for that. My mind was filled with visions of an event I had been looking forward to for months–this was the day that Porky Schornhorst would light a fart.
Porky Schornhorst lit farts just once a year and only for his closest friends. He was the only person in Dubuque County who could do it or even had the nerve to try.
Out of print. As of September 28, 2007, used copies available from $14.86 to $245.51. Also published in paperback under the title Once a Catholic.
Links
YouTube Video: Author Robert Bryne
Bryne discusses Dubuquers’ reactions to Memories of a Non-Jewish Childhood. July 11, 2007. 49 seconds.
Memories of a Non-Jewish Childhood: The Musical by David Resnick
October 15, 2007 at 1:17 am
I first read it in 1971, after my relatives in Dubuque told me about it. They loved it. Thought it was hilarious. They were devout Catholics, but they were also German Catholics, with roots in the countryside in the manure pile, so could appreciate fart humor. My mom told me the bit in the novel about the dentist who undressed female patients while they were under nitrous oxide but got caught when he rebuttoned a blouse wrong was based on an actual incident.