Exactly as the title tells us, this is the story of a young Jewish refugee, Julian Padowicz, who escapes to the US from war-torn Poland with his indomitable but self-centred mother Barbara, and sets out on his quest to adapt to the American way of life. It is, of course, a moving, if all too familiar, story and all credit to Padowicz for overcoming the obstacles and forging a successful life for himself. However, I remained unengaged throughout and couldn’t connect emotionally to him. This is the 4th volume of his memoirs and nothing about it makes me want to read the others. It all felt rather predictable and I found my attention wandering regularly, not helped by the fact that the author has a tendency to ramble quite a lot. Worthy but ultimately not very interesting.