I had read Jarhead and was interested in seeing what had transpired in Anthony Swofford's life since his best selling book was made into a movie. Swofford drags us along on nearly a decade of drugs, promiscuity, infidelity and other unsafe behaviors. It's kind of like watching a train wreck in slow motion. He also is trying and trying again to solve his hate/love/hate/love relationship with his father. In this book he details his family history as he looks for more differences between himself and his father than similarities. We get background on his father and his upbringing. Participation in the military and war shape both Swofford and his father.

After hanging in there through dissolution, despair and depression, a series of three road trips allow us to watch the son and father as they interact. Swofford finally acknowledges the similarities he shares with his father and vows to engage in a more positive future. As a reader, I wonder where he'll venture next as an author.