These six autobiographical stories range in time from 1929 to 1958 and in location from Lynchburg, Virginia to New York City. Engaging events are interspersed with reflection and analysis, but the story line is always the dominant element as we meet a struggling amateur athlete, a misbegotten short order cook, a disastrously incompetent military policeman, a victimized piano instructor at the Juilliard School of Music, a bar fly, and a struggling songwriter. Readers may well find experiences that feel familiar as they return to them more than once and share them with others.