The Dark Lady from Belorusse: A Memoir

I loved this little book. I'm now reading the sequal, The Black Swan. I picked them up because they take place in the Bronx, where I grew up, and Charyn is close to my age. I frequented some of the places he did, but we had wildly different experiences. He is obsessed with his beautiful mother as were so many men she knew. He was extraordinary too. Reads a little like Doctorow only this is a memoir not a fantasy--or is it?Little Charyn goes from about five years old to seven years old in this book. How he remembers everything so vividly (or is making most of it up} I don't know. But it's great story telling. At about 100 pages a book,though, Charyn seems to be stretching out his stories in order to extract as much money per page as he can. I'm reading library copies.