"It's not a novel, it's a whole life in a book." These were the words of my friend Afaf, and today I say she was right. It's the life of the Nolan family and their overcoming of hardships. The struggling mother, with below-average education, and her fight to secure a future for her children. The alcoholic father, with a wild imagination, who nevertheless tried to be an ideal father and support his family (how happy I was for him when he died, for people like him it's hard to live this life). Francie, the protagonist of the novel, from when she was a ten-year-old child wanting to know everything about anything, through her entering school and her subsequent work to support her family.