Human Comedy

The inspiration for the major motion picture Ithaca directed by and starring Meg Ryanwith a cast that includes Sam Shepard Hamish Linklater Alex Neustaedter Jack Quaid and Tom Hanks. The place is Ithaca in California''s San Joaquin Valley. The time is World War II. The family is the Macauley''sa mother sister and three brothers whose struggles and dreams reflect those of America''s second-generation immigrants. . . . In particular fourteen-year-old Homer determined to become one of the fastest telegraph messengers in the West finds himself caught between reality and illusion as delivering his messages of wartime death love and money brings him face-to-face with human emotion at its most naked and raw.. Gentle poignant and richly autobiographical this delightful novel shows us the boy becoming the man in a world that even in the midst of war appears sweeter safer and more livable than out own.