Synopsis

This is chapter two in the continuing saga of Eugene Morris Jerome, alter ego of the youthful Neil Simon. Here he is a young army recruit during the Second World War, going through his basic training, learning more about life, and generally developing his writer's sensibility at boot camp in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1943. Eugene and five other assorted enlisted men confront the daily mess served up in the mess hall, join together in a visit to a local prostitute and, generally, become adults. For the first time Eugene confronts the degradation of anti-semitism; and, for the first time falls in love.