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This book begins as a sort of Jean Shepherd romp with fictional Tom Colozzo recalling his often funny and more than occasionally chaotic childhood, one significantly impacted by undiagnosed attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The narrative then inexorably pulls the reader into the maelstrom of alcoholism and despair that grips Colozzo as an adult, balancing his decline against the ADHD-infused confusion of pre-adolescence and the angst of his teenage years.
A time structure that moves back and forth makes the book a narrative snowball, one growing larger and larger as it rolls down the hill of the story and threatens to crush the novel's protagonist. There is frank treatment of substance abuse and its antecedents in the work. As an adult, the main character constantly vacillates between denial and rationalization while the young Colozzo seems compelled to periodically and inexplicably lash out at family and friends. These depictions are brave and add authenticity, given the author's revelation in an afterword that the book was drawn from personal experience.
Sabino is both funny and insightful as well ("…the world of fatherhood had opened an entire universe's worth of paranoia."). Indeed, the book is filled with nostalgia and poignance, and the narrative is peppered with 1980s references that will resurrect memories for many readers. Readers will likely laugh out loud more than a few times. The latter part of the book is heartfelt and honest, a story of struggle and quiet triumph. It reads much like a memoir, one in which the author has unearthed and opened for the reader the time capsules of his main character's life.