"[My mother] was so deeply embedded in my consciousness that for the first year of school I seem to have believed that each of my teachers was my mother in disguise," p. 3.

"In that ferocious and self-annihilating way in which so many Jewish men of his generation served their families, my father served my mother, my sister Hannah, but particularly me," p. 8.

"...let's face it, Ma, I am the smartest and neatest little boy in the history of my school! Teachers ... go home happy to their husbands because of me ..." p. 15.

"...how can she rise with me on the crest of my genius during those dusky beautiful hours after school, and then at night, because I will not eat some string beans and a baked potato, point a bread knife at my heart? And why doesn't my father stop her?" p. 17.

"...I was wholly incapable of keeping my...