Summary

Wear Your Love like Heaven. The author writes that in the aftermath of his taking the sleeping pills, his parents decided that the best thing to do was to leave him alone. This, the author says, led to him growing his hair back, becoming increasingly independent in his choice of clothes, and to the use of drugs. His description of, and commentary on, his drug use leads him to draw more comparisons between himself and his mother, now deeply dependent on alcohol. His comment on addiction: “one is released from shame for an hour, two hours, eight, but somehow the falling back into limit is that much worse” (161). He also says, again, that he is his mother’s son.

The author then describes spending more and more time away from home, either physically or metaphysically. At one point he hitchhiked into San Francisco...