A true story The world in which the child finds himself is one of vivid and wondrous beauty, and horrifying ugliness, too, that thrills with its suggestion of evil. The father, old enough to be a granddaddy, prides himself a self-made man, likes to dress well and doesn't take crap. The younger mother, a former school teacher, can be teasingly friendly: at other times, as coldly indifferent as ice. School proves difficult. Neither parent is ever satisfied, not even with passing. By the fourth grade, the boy is confined to the principal's office every afternoon. And on the bus, required to sit in plain sight on the heater by the driver, this for fighting. Military school faces him at age eleven. Fun with girls leads to an obsession with sex and daring escapades. However, the cadet's growing sense of abandonment imposes a death sentence upon him: he envisions a hanging. A shadow looming, this hanging spells trouble. To parents who are stunned, outraged, and deeply saddened he returns. The child survives, most of him does; we do not leave childhood without sacrificing something. At the very end, he is saved in a way that is not unexpected, yet still astonishing