Nobody's Fool Condition:Good a miserable childhood: the happy

a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while

is a masterful account of this transformation

The Man in the High Castle (well read)

But when an elevator in a new city building goes into total freefall on Lila Mae's watch

Nobody's Fool Condition:Good a miserable childhood: the happyRichard Russo's slyly funny and moving novel follows the unexpected operation of grace in a deadbeat town in upstate New Yorkand in the life of one of its unluckiest citizens, Sully, who has been doing the wrong thing triumphantly for fifty years. Divorced from his own wife and carrying on halfheartedly with another man's, saddled with a bum knee and friends who make enemies redundant, Sully now has one new problem to cope with: a long estranged son