Communist in a Candy Shop

Born in 1918 Joe spends his first years in Montreal happily raised by his teen sister Franny who dreams of being a motion picture star. At 10 he moves to NYC with his mother leaving Franny and meeting his brother Jack for the first time. Jack, the only man in Joe’s life, is twenty years older, emotionally and physically abusive. Joe comes of age during the Great Depression. He is smart and idealistic and when he graduates he visits Franny in Montreal and reunites with a friend who is an active member of the Communist Party. Joe joins the Communist Party in NYC and goes to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He suffers one setback after another both abroad and on his return home. Each time he is able to pick himself up again, to reinvent himself in an effort to become a ‘man’. He ends up running a candy shop as a front for a bookmaking operation with ties to the mob. As the years and events go by Joe and Franny lose touch each embarrassed that they have not achieved their dreams. Decades later Joe receives a letter from Franny apologizing for filling his head with romantic notions about the world. She is on her deathbed and has finally come to appreciate the importance of family. Joe rushes to Montreal but is too late to see Franny. He does however re-unite with his nephews and their families. Joe finally realizes that what defines a man is not his job or his deeds but his relationships with those he cares about.