And You Know You Should Be Glad: A True Story of Friendship by Bob Greene

From Barnes & Noble

In Be True to Your School, Bob Greene wrote about himself and four high school buddies who were so inseparable that he interlinks them in an acronym ABCDJ (Allen, Bob, Chuck, Dan, Jack.) In this soulful memoir, Greene takes us back to the kindergarten origins of this group bond and jolts us with news of a reunion occasioned by the fatal illness of one of its members. Some readers might be put off by the sentimentality of Greene's subject matter; but doesn't a well-lived life brim with sentiment?

From the Publisher

A highly personal and moving true story of memory and friendship from the New York Times bestselling author of Duty and Be True to Your School

Growing up in Bexley, Ohio, population 13,000, Bob Greene and his four best friends--Allen, Chuck, Dan, and Jack--were inseparable. Of the four, Jack was Bob's very best friend, a bond forged from the moment they met on the first day of kindergarten. They grew up together, got in trouble together, learned about life together--and were ultimately separated by time and distance, as all adults are. But through the years Bob and Jack stayed close, holding on to the friendship that had formed years before.

Then, the fateful call came: Jack was dying. And in this hour of need, as the closest of friends will do, Bob, Allen, Chuck, and Dan put aside the demands of their own lives, came together, and saw Jack through to the end of his journey.

Tremendously moving, funny, heart-stirring, and honest, And You Know You Should Be Glad is an uplifting exploration of the power of friendship to uphold us, sustain us, and ultimately set us free.

Author Biography:

Bob Greene is a New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning journalist whose books include Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents; Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen; Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War; Hang Time: Days and Dreams with Michael Jordan; Be True to Your School; and, with his sister, D. G. Fulford, To Our Children's Children: Preserving Family Histories for Generations to Come.

As a magazine writer he has been lead columnist for Life and Esquire; as a broadcast journalist he has served as contributing correspondent for ABC News Nightline. For thirty-one years he wrote a syndicated newspaper column based in Chicago, first for the Sun-Times and later for the Tribune. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Op-Ed page.

Publishers Weekly

Bestselling author Greene (Duty) has filled a shelf with two dozen books, including his 1993 novel All Summer Long, while appearing as a broadcast journalist (Nightline) and writing for newspapers (the Chicago Tribune) and magazines (Life). Now he looks back on his youth in Bexley, Ohio (pop. 13,000), where he and his four pals grew up together, calling themselves ABCDJ (for Allen, Bob, Chuck, Dan and Jack). Their lives' paths diverged, but they always stayed in contact; in 2004, the news that Jack was terminally ill reunited them. Then and now, the group used jokes "to hide our feelings-to pretend to feel nothing... [which] seemed much better than the alternative." Greene met Jack in kindergarten, and they remained best friends for life. Remembering people and places they shared, the two revisit old haunts, discovering that their beloved Toddle House, where they once went for late-night chocolate pie, is now a Pizza Plus. Greene's repetitive, rambling free associations recall everything from his Halloween costume and old songs to ice cream parlors, state fairs and clothing fads. Unfortunately, the author's dusty attic of lost Americana is cluttered with cliches, nostalgia and overly sentimental yearnings. (May 1) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Prolific writer and journalist Greene (Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents) here pens a memoir about the value of friendship, memory, and the desire to live one's life to the fullest in the face of adversity. Greene skillfully weaves the story of his relationship with his friend Jack Roth-whom he first met in kindergarten in Ohio-into a narrative that moves back and forth between the present, when Jack is battling terminal cancer, and the past, particularly concerning Greene and Jack and three other friends with whom they shared childhood, adolescent, and adult experiences. Greene's detailed memories are nostalgic, endearing, and, at times, quotably philosophical. The reader is constantly aware of Greene's strong love and respect for his best friend. Though his admiration occasionally results in the sense that his friend was untouchable in his goodness, Greene's high praise, on the whole, emphasizes the value and rarity of such longstanding friendships. Readers who enjoyed Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking will find Greene's writing to be more wistful and plainspoken but similarly rewarding. Recommended for all public libraries.[See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/06.]-Stacey R. Brownlie, Lititz P.L., PA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Journeyman Greene (Once Upon a Town, 2002, etc.) celebrates the life and mourns the death of his oldest friend. Greene, now approaching 60, first met Jack in kindergarten back in Bexley, Ohio. Bob and Jack, together with Allen, Chuck and Dan, comprised the "ABCDJ" troupe that remained kindred spirits, devoted throughout the decades. Greene's tribute to Jack records some of the treasured moments they shared over the years: Commonplace youthful adventures, the little markers of days, attain a significance as Bexley becomes Grovers Corners in Greene's memory, a memory apparently sharpened by advancing years. He writes of Bexley's Audie Murphy Hill and Alum Creek, of Toddle House burgers and Toll House cookies. There was the Ferris wheel on Main Street and Chuck Berry and the Beatles, too. He writes of girls and the discovery of sex; of the catchphrases special only to the ABCDJs; and ultimately of humanity. Jack, for whom "not having a killer instinct was the best thing about him," was Greene's Everyman, not really extraordinary, just good. In this Tuesdays (And All Other Days) with Jack, the author mostly sidesteps the maudlin.

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