After the Death of the Ice Cream Man ranges from 1963 to 2003, and takes the reader camping in Wisconsin's northwoods, explores a college campus in the early 1990s, and settles in a small town where memories haunt every street. Some random influences include "The Fool's Progress" by Edward Abbey, the album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" by Wilco, and old barns. It begins and ends with the word "mom."