"Alan Kaufman grew up in the Bronx, the son of a Jewish mother who had survived the Holocaust, her mind badly scarred by her trauma. Growing up under the shadow of his mother's demons, vowing never to become a victim like her, he struggles uncomprehendingly with his Jewish identity. He escapes from his crazy home life to the schoolyard and recreates himself as a mindless football fanatic on his high school team, joining in its sadistic rituals and drills.

In a great bid for freedom from his mother's still-overpowering legacy, he hitchhikes across the U.S. only to summon the phantoms he had sought to escape. Alan's continued odyssey takes him from an Israeli kibbutz and the Israeli army to his descent into alcoholism and homelessness on the streets of New York. At last, discovering in poetry the gift that is true to his being, he also finds sobriety in San Francisco."--BOOK JACKET.