want this memoir to put “a narrative line upon disparate images.” I’ve tried to unfold my story as it happened in time, to take you on the grand tour. Some memoirs are prosaic, the root of the word meaning “in a straight line.” But my story is less linear, more a circuitous pilgrimage of loops, lapses, hurrahs, and heartaches. My story is a rosary, the beads of which are the people and experiences that have made me what I am. I have tried to move from one bead to the next, but my fingers are feeble