Excerpt from El Paso by Winston Groom, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN ARTHUR'S LIFE , the entire world spread out around him like a gift, one he was determined not to lose. Never even to let from his sight. He was enrolled in a day school and, as the years passed, his new situation settled on him mostly in ease. Arthur received a generous allowance of a dollar a week that was raised to two dollars when he turned twelve, and not only kept up his butterfly collection but also, at his father's suggestion, took up collecting coins and stamps as well. the elder Shaughnessy taught him how to sail on small boats in Newport, and on vacations in Maine they saw bears and moose along the roads.

Still, Arthur hadn't made any really close friendships with the other boys of the day school. they seemed different, and though they didn't tease or make fun of him for where he came from, they always seemed apart and let Arthur alone. He kept in touch with Mick Martin, though, and every so often Mick would stay over for a weekend at the Shaughnessy house in Boston and sometimes even be invited down to their place at Newport. Mick was Arthur's lone tie with his past and both his father and Beatie thought it best to let him deal with this in his own way. And so the years slipped by and Arthur grew up, a happy boy, if a little shy.

then came the ordeal at Groton.

As soon as young Arthur had arrived from the orphanage into the Shaughnessy family, the Colonel began to pull strings to get him into the Groton School, just as the Colonel's own father had pulled strings to get him into Harvard. When the time came, at age fourteen, Arthur was packed off, with the Colonel's tales of boarding school grandeur ringing in his ears. Arthur, however, had reservations, not the least of which was that only five years earlier he had finally arrived in the most magnificent household imaginable, only to be shipped off to a place full of strangers, no matter how wealthy and sophisticated they might be.

Colonel Shaughnessy had arranged an imposing entrance into Groton for Arthur. that morning, he timed it precisely so his private railcar would deliver his son to the rail station just as the other boys were arriving on the public trains. For a few moments the ploy seemed to work. Arthur stepped down from the gleaming railcar, with Bomba carrying his bags. A hush came over the throng of Groton boys on the platform while they gaped at this strange person arriving as if from another world, a world different and even more exalted than their own. then from the back of the crowd someone started it.

"Would Mr. Astor wish his bags to be taken for him?" came a loud voice.

Everyone took up the cry.

"Would Mr. Astor like his shoes shined?" somebody said to great laughter.

"Could someone arrange for flowers in Mr. Astor's private suites!"

Bomba put on his fiercest expression and parted the derisive crowd, with Arthur tagging behind, mortified.

"Will someone please call Mr. Astor's personal motor coach!" a shout went up.

It was not a good beginning for Arthur Shaughnessy at the Groton School. And in time, no matter how Arthur tried, it only got worse.

When they learned his name, Shaughnessy, there was more mockery. they called him a harp and a bog-trotter and a fish-eater. All the Irish slurs to hurt and embarrass. When Arthur protested that his family was not Catholic, they ridiculed this, too, saying behind his back that this was no better than the Jews changing their names so as to take over the country.

Hazing became an art form.

they short-sheeted his bedclothes and put toads and beetles in his desk drawers in his dorm room. Someone even taped a piece of Limburger cheese to the back of his closet—it took him a week to find the source of the odor. Once he returned from class to find lace curtains put up around his window. Arthur became a loner, which of course made it worse. Boys often got the treatment from the Groton elite and were expected to be good-natured about it. But Arthur kept sullenly to himself, thinking that at the orphanage at least they all tried to get along. then one day the dam burst.

Excerpted from El Paso by Winston Groom. Copyright © 2016 by Winston Groom. With permission of the publisher, Liveright Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.