In this third volume of memories, the author depicts some of the people he's met along the way. These anecdotal sketches illuminate some famous folks, to be sure-encounters with writers like Walter Tevis (The Hustler), Robert Penn Warren (All the King's Men), and Richard Yates (Revolutionary Road), even sidelong glances at historical giants like Abe Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, as well as a sad tale of ill-fated Manhattan socialite Irene Silverman, who was the victim of notorious grifters Sante and Kenneth Kimes. But mostly we read of ordinary people-like the student who encountered aliens...

In June of 1953 Mark Antonich celebrates his twelfth birthday-and the beginning of a long summer he hopes will be filled with backyard reading, swimming in the town pool, and hanging out with his next-door cousin Tony Zivich. An ordinary summer in a small Connecticut farming town outside New Haven. But everything changes when his leisurely, dreamy days abruptly turn into what becomes a frightening summer-nightmarish events that will color the rest of his life. He watches, helpless, confused, as his home life starts to crumble: a rebellious, older sister drifting off with dangerous older...