The author turns the current mania for the memoir on its proverbial ear, mining the exceedingly rich terrain of his life, his family, and his unique world view--a sensibility at once take-no-prisoners sharp and deeply charitable. A tart-tongued mother does dead-on imitations of her young son's nervious tics, to the great amusement of his teachers; a stint of Kerouackian wandering is undertaken with a quadriplegic companion.