With his latest story, WISHIN′ AND HOPIN′, Wally Lamb takes a turn toward the lighthearted and laugh-provoking. In a vein similar to Jean Shepherd′s A Christmas Story and David Sedaris′s The Santaland Diaries, Lamb′s holiday tale focuses on a feisty parochial school fifth grader named Felix Funicello--a distant cousin of the iconic Annette! Both poignant and hilarious, WISHIN′ AND HOPIN′ transports us back to October, November, and December of 1964, when LBJ and Lady Bird were in the White House, Meet the Beatles was on everyone′s turntables, and Christmas meant mistletoe, mangers, and midnight mass. Then it propels us from the past to the present so that we might measure what we′ve gained and what we′ve lost.