Who would have thought that a certain sweet, elderly lady in the congregation of our church could actually be a latent John Steinbeck or William Saroyan? Not since reading Saroyan's Collection of Short Stories has one enjoyed a 1920's and Depression years portrait of America as the one Neva Carpenter has so vividly brought to life in her written pictorial childhood memoirs, entitled Harem Scarem. Reading Neva's memories makes one feel as if the events are happening for the first time to both the reader and the author. Neva didn't just write an autobiographical account of her life. She painted a picture to be imprinted in all of our memories, allowing each of us to actually own a little bit of her childhood experiences as if they were our own.

What makes the book exceptional is Neva's expansion of the narrative to include an omniscient account of all the book's prime characters, for example, the time her father lost his wallet. The reader experiences the events of Neva's life not only through Neva's eyes, but also through the eyes of her loved ones. This lets us gain an even more intimate understanding of the events that shaped her life. Neva's memories are pure genius; a testament to a family's struggles with life, hardship, and illness, all to be overcome by the great power of love that her family had for life and for each other.

This a new, paperback book published by Calvert-Carpenter Publishing in 2006. It has illustrated wrappers.