A Schizophrenic, A Bomber and A Woodworker Walk into A Bar

A Schizophrenic, A Bomber and A Woodworker Walk into A Bar explores three lives of a character who has problems with authority. A memoir, it describes the evolution of self-determination, understanding and reconciliation.

In Part I, The Notorious Miller Twins, the mature narrator explores the genesis of his problems. The only son of a schizophrenic mother who is alternately too close and too distant, he revisits her family dynamic, introducing us to a clan whose tragicomic dysfunctions shape three generations. Despite his apparent escape into a family of his own, his fate remains entwined with hers, he becoming her savior and guardian while she denies he is her son and calls him by a made-up name.

In Part II, The Bethesda Bomber, the teen-age narrator chances into his fondest vision of heaven: a 1960s record store, Empire Music. Enthralled by rock and roll, pin-ball, like-minded friends and the increasing trust of the store owner, a successful entrepreneur with more authority resistance than his own, he drops out of high school. Broken trust and human idiosyncrasy cost him his place in heaven, and unprotected sex make him a husband and father at 18.

In Part III, Enterprise Woodworking & Design Company, expelled from his wife's family's business, he creates his own path, opening a creative and comprehensive woodworking business that grows, despite agonizing setbacks, enormously successful. His clients include not only D.C. notables of the 1980s and '90s but also an upstart computer company, Apple.

Yet 20 years in, he walks away from the balancing act, content to begin a fourth life.