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Benesch, a graduate of Franconia College and The New School of Social Research, shares snapshots from his life in the form of letters written to his daughter (some not sent) in this provocative sequel memoir. Beginning with his earliest jobs, such as driving cabs at night in Manhattan and his years-long graduate school studies in anthropology and sociology, Benesch reminisces with an irreverent candor. His early career in social work was accomplished with courageous abandon in some of the most challenging neighborhoods in the Bronx and Harlem. His equally high-spirited pursuit of academic degrees and a long-term quest in the world of advanced Masonry was accomplished with the same unstoppable energy. Benesch also served as one of many caregivers to chimpanzee Nim Chimpsky in the Project Nim study to determine if chimps could master sign language. He eventually retired from a decades-long career in the federal government.
The author's detailed but down-to-earth writing is thoroughly engaging if a bit uneven, with writing conventions occasionally being sacrificed for enthusiastic storytelling. That said, these infrequent issues are nearly unnoticeable because the fascinating narrative is hard to put down. Readers will enjoy the sense of freedom of choice that Benesch had as a white male of his era and the unvarnished rendition of what could have been a more conventional, sanitized memoir. The author's sense of adventure is tempered by a sense of responsibility to society that never wavers despite his freewheeling energy. Benesch's graphic sexual explorations aren't for everyone, but these interludes capture the ambiance of the sexual revolution of the sixties and seventies and his bent for intimate sociological inquiry. The memoir illustrates Benesch's preference to experience life with the volume turned up to eleven and captures well the transformational energy that penetrated the collective American psyche of that era.