How does a life go so awry that a bright and generous upbringing turns to thoughts of slamming a nine-millimeter Luger bullet through one’s temporal lobe? That’s the fulcrum War Baby twists upon, as a hopeful upbringing goes off the tracks to an insane slow slog into active alcoholism, the Luger always lurking just outside life’s stage-lights. With drama, humor, and pathos, my life is redeemed in a true story told for those who are seekers of what Dante described in the first canto of The Divine Comedy, Inferno, “the path that does not stray.” Yet the book’s three broad themes – the dark of a personal bottom, the light of a stable childhood, and a denouement of crazy experiences – lead not to some Pollyannaish “new life.” Rather, with humor offsetting more than a few living nightmares – War Baby follows an unexpected and challenging path of recovery, and how it looks after a nearly 40-year sojourn.