Thomas R. Pryor Presents New Memoir at Barnes & Noble in Manhattan Tonight

Back in the 1960s in Thomas R. Pryor's working class neighborhood on the Upper East Side, Devil Dogs were a nickel, hydrants were often open, and the game called Ringalario let boys put their arms around girls for the first time. Nuns slugged you for humming baseball beer jingles in class. Junkies scrambled up fire escapes with stolen TVs. And, like other fathers, Tommy's took him to saloons all day, and no one thought it strange.

I Hate the Dallas Cowboys (October 2014) is Thomas Pryor's funny, bittersweet portrait of his first eighteen years-a love song to street life and his youth. In this collection of fifty-three humorous and poignant essays, Pryor relives his adventures and misadventures-the day Yogi Berra stepped on his toe, the mystery behind Dad's vanished pants, and the airborne manhole cover that crushed Pete Palermo's cherished Thunderbird. Pryor's sharp ear captures conversation like a stethoscope picks up a heartbeat.

I Hate the Dallas Cowboys is The Wonder Years with taverns, subways, and Checker cabs. Fans of David Sedaris, Ian Frazier, Bill Bryson, John McNulty, and Garrison Keillor will love this book. Pryor resuscitates a lost neighborhood full of voices and characters who loiter, argue, play, love, and usually end up loitering again, because isn't every neighborhood a little town?