I owned a girls’-style pair of his famous white buck shoes. I clipped photos and articles about Pat Boone from celebrity magazines. You may know this man of my dreams, Pat Boone, a 1960s pop-music idol, who had a huge #1 hit with his song “April Love.”Īs a teenager, I knew that song by heart and played it on the piano. How fitting: It’s April, and I’m here to reveal my first (albeit unrequited) love. Please join me in welcoming Sue as she talks about ‘ April Love: My Longest Spring.’ Picking apricots on a kibbutz, tramping cross-country in a loathed Volkswagen camper, appearing in a made-for-television version of her own life: Silverman is a bobby-soxer, a baby boomer, a hippy, a lefty, and a rebel with something to say to those of us-most of us-still wondering what to make of ourselves. And yet somehow Silverman found her way, a “gefilte fish swimming upstream,” and found her voice, which in this searching, bracing, hilarious, and moving book tries to make sense of that most troubling American condition: belonging, but to what? Now a Tea Party darling, Boone once shone as a squeaky-clean pop music icon of normality, an antidote for Silverman’s own confusing and dangerous home, where being a Jew in a Christian school wasn’t easy, and being the daughter of the Anti-Boone was unspeakable. Follow Sue William Silverman, a one-woman cultural mash-up, on her exploration of identity among the mishmash of American idols and ideals that confuse most of us-or should. Please see the end of the post for details.

Sue will be talking about ‘April Love’ and is offering a copy of her memoir as a giveaway.

With that thought, I’m delighted to welcome author Sue William Silverman here today to talk about her new memoir, THE PAT BOONE FAN CLUB: MY LIFE AS A WHITE ANGLO-SAXON JEW.

What do you think of when you see white buck shoes? If you’re of a certain age, Pat Boone should come to mind.

Sue william silverman father