It's the late 1960s and eight-year-old Benny is living in an interracial housing project. Unlike his abusive father, subservientmother, and misfit brother, he is fun-loving, adaptive, and maybe even sublimely normal. Girls adore him and he's a natural born comedian/mimic. He'll do anything to lift up the spirits of those he cares about. Still, what he most longs for is a healthy and safe family. As he strives nobly to rise above his situation, the hits keep coming. Those include being forced for all to see to sit on the porch wearing only a diaper, haircuts from hell, and being sentenced to bed for an entire summer. Despitehis powerful presence and many successes over the years, his breaking point finally comes in his mid-twenties after another of his father's disgraces once again isn't opposed by his mother.

Fists fly, guns and a samurai sword are involved, a double funeral occurs, a beautiful Boise girl tackles Benny just in time, and a magical rebirth of a sort is in the cards. With such curious chapter titles as Bowling With One-Eyed Gumby, Collette and the Crackhead, Make Me into a Volkswagen, Wigs, God, and a Shark Get Brained, Two Rookies in the Burbs, and A+ and the Torso, this unique, 20-year rags to inner riches story is also spiced with humor, action, adventure, well set up surprises, and unforgettable characters. Benny's resilience will make you cheer for him from cover to cover.