*Through a Portagee Gate* is both an autobiography and a biography. It gives a remarkably honest self-portrait and an endearing tribute to the author’s father, a Portuguese immigrant cobbler who came to America in 1915. The narrative reveals a deep desire to escape the confines of the immigrant, ethnic world, while also acknowledging a keen nostalgia about one’s past, a need to remember and pay tribute to those who come before us. Felix accomplishes this through unforgettable dialogue and vivid characterizations worthy of Steinbeck, a prose, sometimes poignant, at other times hilarious, that strips human experience to its bare and powerful elements.

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