Andrew Winslow's WHS ‘86 Memoir Which Includes Life in Westwood

1986 graduate of Westwood High School Andrew Winslow published his memoir The Electrician: From Altar Boy to Addict: Growing Up Irish Catholic in Blue-Collar Boston in October. In the video below, he and co-author Jeff Muir discuss the book.

The description on Amazon is: “From the leafy suburbs of Boston in the 1970s through the go-it-alone hedonism of the 1980s, this is a story told through the heart and eyes of a child struggling to make sense of it all and become a man―whatever that means. Both hilarious and poignant, The Electrician explores the life of a boy growing up surrounded by elderly, slightly crazy relatives whose experiences were tainted by the Depression and World War II. With omnipresent religious and ethnic traditions, impending nuclear holocaust, failed romances, alcoholism and, ultimately, recovery, it's a coming-of-age tale that will resonate with anyone who grew up in the shadow of history.”

The Electrician: From Altar Boy to Addict: Growing Up Irish Catholic in Blue-Collar Boston contains references to life in Westwood during the 1970s which may seem familiar to Westwoodians. For example, Winslow discusses spending summers at Hale Reservation but seeing women avoid the water for the sake of their beehive hairstyles.

BookBaby, a self-publishing house, released The Electrician: From Altar Boy to Addict: Growing Up Irish Catholic in Blue-Collar Boston in October of 2018. The book has 4.5 stars on Amazon and 4.33 stars on Goodreads. One review on Amazon summarizes the tome [it is almost 600 pages long] as “A good read and one I would recommend for an insightful but [thought-provoking] read.”

Andrew Winslow and Jeff Muir’s memoir The Electrician: From Altar Boy to Addict: Growing Up Irish Catholic in Blue-Collar Boston is available in paperback, hardcover and Kindle versions on Amazon. It is also available in iBooks and at Barnes and Noble in both hardcover, paperback, and Nook formats.