Much of the pleasure of this lively book comes from Herrick's match of style and subject as he plunges his hero through the Depression, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, civil rights skirmishes in the South, and more than several loves and losses. A rowdy book, its protagonist is a picaresque lover, Tom Jones with a lacing of Karl Marx, who moves through the 20th century at a gallop. -- Louisville Courier-Journal