The subtitle of LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL is "A Story Of The Buried Life"; and, while author Thomas Wolfe insisted that he was writing fiction, there were probably very few people amongst his friends, relatives and neighbors in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, who could not sift through the thinly veiled personalities described in his first novel, who could not recognize the individuals whom Wolfe was revealing -- many in love, many in accusation, and most somewhere in between.  Thomas Wolfe openly wrote about his bitter and confused boyhood and adolescence, "buried" inside the boarding house owned and operated by his mother; the alcoholic and sexual frenzies of his father; his huge number of siblings, most of whom never understood him; and the brief loves he experienced, largely from itinerant strangers.  LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL stands with the best novels of F. SCOTT FITZGERALD ERNEST HEMINGWAY, and JOHN DOS PASSOS  as representative of a special time in America, and of a boy's dreams, helplessness and confusion on the road to maturity.  Highly recommended!!!