Publisher's Synopsis
Born in Louisiana to a soon-to-be absent father and an abusive, alcoholic mother, Clifton Crais spent his childhood perched on a bar stool, living with relatives too old or infirm to care for him. Indeed, it is memory - elusive and essential - that forms the centre of Crais' beautifully rendered memoir History Lessons. In an effort to restore his own, Crais brings the tools of his formal training as a historian to bear on himself and his family. Part memoir, part narrative science, part historical detective story, History Lessons explores what it means to be human.
