Blake had a brother Scott. Their parents were Burck and Marlies. They lived in Oklahoma, growing up there in the 1960s and 1970s. They were upper middle class. The book is nonfiction and is mostly about Scott, the son who demanded attention his whole life, and often got it. But it is also the story, even though somewhat incidentally, of Blake and his parents.
How does a family deals with a child / brother who is mentally ill (or is he?), who abuses drugs and alcohol but who becomes a Marine, who wrecks numerous cars, who becomes an Evangelical (sort of), who loves but mocks his family every chance he gets, who is an unrepentant miscreant and worse, who is forgiven over and over and yet……
A poignant story, not that uncommon, told by Blake as remembered by Blake. Which of us hasn't asked why children from the same parents, raised in the same environment, make choices that ultimately lead to a failed life.
David Sedaris: "This fine and haunting memoir touches the spot where family, responsibility and helplessness converge."
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