Wheel of Water

From snow falling on a Los Angeles morning to the glow of a ham-radio dial, these pages trace a son’s long look at the parents who made, and unmade, a home. Set against mid-century southern California, aircraft carriers and Disneyland, segregated pools and Friday-night fights, this memoir-in-moments captures how memory shifts while feelings stay true. A quiet, razor-sharp father speaks most comfortably in Morse code; a drama queen mother lifts a martini and fills the room with laughter and sparkling conversation, determined to be the center of every party; three daughters push against patriarchy; and a son observes his parents sliding toward acrimony as he grows older. Tender, wry, and unsparing, this book is a love letter to the messy facts of family and the small weather of a life that still changes us when we read it.