Maureen Cleary A novel based on truths

This novel traces the life of a woman from childhood in a working class New Haven neighborhood through the rapid changes in American society after World War II. Maureen Cleary encounters ethnic strife early as children of various nationalities vie for supremacy. She ponders class differences between her mother's Irish immigrant family and her father's old Yankee family which boasts ties to a Mayflower passenger. Her journey through the second half of the twentieth century pinpoints the impact of significant changes in societal mores, education, medicine, finance, morality and women's rights on her and her family. She twice builds careers in occupations previously closed to women and travels to nineteen countries on business and pleasure trips.