Publisher's Synopsis
A short memoir in three parts. HISTORY is about the author and some characters he has known (a transvestite, an entrepreneur, a rocket scientist, a beatnik, a martial artist, a movie star, and a fool, to name a few). These stories, taking place from 1945 to 1961, are generally true. PRE-HISTORY is about the author's parents and grandparents. Occurring before 1945, these stories are generally not true, or are at least imagined. It is through these tales that the author tries to figure out what made his folks the way they were (and explain how he got to be such a pidawee). DEATH is about the passing of the author's mother in 1955 in Shelby, North Carolina (at the Center of the Known Universe - where all explanations come together). Although not explicitly about the South, it is a Southern Book. It's got crazy white people, Magical Negroes, muscadine grapes, livermush, dynamite, undertones of violence, and guns - lots of guns.
