Meehan's book is nine chapters, nine stories beginningwith his freshman year at MIT in 1957. He goes in thearmy, he goes around the world to Thailand, he goesdown the world to Chile. I could not stop followinghim. He really has no extraordinary adventures; whatmakes the book extraordinary is his power of observingand reflecting on himself and what happens around him.He has a special appeal as a subject since he seems tooccasionally go out of control but never out of focus.Maybe his years investigating the stability of land tohold dams and support buildings have benefited his hugeliterary talents. There is something very special aboutthese stories. The book has a shocking ending where heseems to promise the reader that he is finishinghimself off in a lucrative dreariness in Palo Alto, butthen if you remember the book's beginning you see thathe thrives by taking turns others don't.--Steve Baer Coevolution Quarterly