es growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s and 1960s, his college years in Boston, his fall into addiction and alcoholism, and his subsequent recovery and building of a family with a wife and adopted child. The memoir is constructed in three parts: the first is a collection of essays covering his childhood; the second a set of poems covering his college and adult years; the third is a set of biographical stories covering his alcoholism and addiction. Cohen, who died in 2016, writes with naked honesty about growing up on the streets of Brooklyn and his subsequent search for happiness and stability as his world crumbles around him.