One of These Things First

“In March of 1962, the author, who was fifteen-years old, managed to “escape the hawk-eyed scrutiny” of three saleswomen in whose care he’d been left, went to the back of his grandfather’s store, punched the glass pane out of a window and sawed his wrists and forearms on the shards of glass remaining in the frame. Narrowly avoiding death, he was hospitalized and, on the brink of being committed to a state hospital, begged his grandfather to bankroll a stay at the exclusive, private posh Payne...