I did not grow up in an ethnically rich city like Passaic. In fact, the opposite was true, as I grew up in a suburb of Washington, DC. However, even though I did not grow up in the same town or even the same decade, there were amazing parallels.

Parallels such as girls, or more precisely, the courage to talk to them. Or the camaraderie of boys growing up together and forming bonds that would last a lifetime. What about the big poker game and striptease? Wait a minute That didn't happen when I was seventeen (I sure wish it had though)! It did, however, happen to Bob Rosenthal.

Yes, "Wonderful Passaic" is just that; wonderful. It will inspire your own (possibly forgotten) recollections of growing up.

Robert Rosenthal's book is a glorious narrative memoir. His style, naive, gentle and kind, takes the reader back into the uncomplicated moments of youth. In recounting his memories, we are transported through the history of Possaic, a town brimming with multiethnic culture. It is the essence of America and it touches your heart. I recommend this book ...it is a joy to read.

I've been in New Jersey on a couple of occasions, each time just passing through on the way from somewhere to somewhere else. To the best of my recollections, I've never set foot in Passaic. But, after reading Bob Rosenthal's recently published book, Wonderful Passaic, I wish I had.

Subtitled "Memories and Recollections," Wonderful Passaic is exactly that: a charming, understated, wistful collection of closely observed and warmly remembered vignettes. Collectively, they beautifully illustrate what it was like to grow up at the height of the Great Depression, through the Second World War and the Korean War, in the ethnically diverse melting pot that was and is Passaic--a town that could seve as a metaphor for simpler, more innocent times.

In its pages, Wonderful Passaic covers the full range of experiences that a boy of any era could expect to encounter in the coming-of-age process. There are lessons to be learned about the importance of familiy ties. There are friendships established that will last a lifetime. There's the discovery of sex. There's the joy and heartbreak of public education. There is a wealth of other meaningful events, trials and tribulations, all of which contributed to the transformation from the naive child of yesterday to the man of today: a well-traveled and highly respected research engineer (among other talents) who influenced America's space program.

The common thread among all these waystops of life is, of course, the author's beloved hometown, which witnessed a number of surprising incidents, all filtered through the consciousness of someone who was on the spot at the time. Did you know, for example, that during WW II anti-aircraft gunners in Passaic mistakenly shot at (and luckily missed) a friendly plane, causing fires to spring up around the city? Were you aware that the cathode ray tube, one of television's prime components, was invented and built in Passaic? And what explanation can there be that the master clock at Passaic's Number 11 School stopped at the exact moment of FDR's death?

Told in unadorned, straightforward prose, Bob Rosenthal's Wonderful Passaic is by turns a humorous, poignant, heartwarming, and nostalgic paean to a specific place and time. It is highly recommended for anyone who has ever longed to return to the less compicated days of yesteryear.