New Jersey native Kristen Buckley travels through a series of catastrophic detours she calls childhood—one that was anything but normal. Set adrift after her parents divorce, Buckley embarks upon an emotional odyssey through the eerie underworld of northern New Jersey, where perverted gym teachers are as big a threat as the local mobsters, and timbale-playing orangutans wield the power to shape the future. Among the colorful cast of chracaters vividly portrayed are her brilliantlly wry mother; two deaf, adopted siblings from Korea; two Jewish stepsisters; and one pot-smoking runaway. After a childhood spent searching for a place to call home, she ultimately finds it and emerges as a truly unforgettable heroine.