Table of Contents
Introduction: Ten Year Anniversary xi
Retrogression Defined xiii
Prologue xiv
Chapter 1 Victims 1
Chapter 2 Separated 7
Chapter 3 Reverend Conversations 9
Chapter 4 Interrogations 14
Chapter 5 Homeward Bound 18
Chapter 6 Little Man 21
Chapter 7 Dreamy Girl 26
Chapter 8 Fatherhood 29
Chapter 9 Fatherhood, Take Two 35
Chapter 10 Search Terms 42
Chapter 11 Messiah Complex 49
Chapter 12 Wolves 55
Chapter 13 Grandma, Wendy and Anne 60
Chapter 14 Italian Americans and American Italians 66
Chapter 15 Barbs 71
Chapter 16 Aikido 74
Chapter 17 Grief 78
Chapter 18 The Parking Attendant 81
Chapter 19 Intuition 85
Chapter 20 Eitan 90
Chapter 21 She Just Say That? 96
Chapter 22 Cartoons 103
Chapter 23 Misunderstanding 106
Chapter 24 Samir and His Wife 109
Chapter 25 Waiting for Repairs 114
Chapter 26 My Work 121
Chapter 27 Pandora's Box 126
Chapter 28 Seduced and Abandoned 131
Chapter 29 Falling Up 134
Chapter 30 Please Don't Throw Food 137
Chapter 31 Juvie 147
Chapter 32 Relocated Yankees 151
Chapter 33 Missed Opportunities 157
Chapter 34 Nolo Contendere 165
Chapter 35 Gidget's Got Gadgets 174
Chapter 36 Preaching to the Choir 177
Chapter 37 Raising Men 180
Chapter 38 Waiting Women of the Eighties 183
Chapter 39 Going Soft 187
Chapter 40 Spring Thaw 190
Chapter 41 My Writing Circle 195
Chapter 42 Haunts 203
Chapter 43 Climbing Up and Out 206
Chapter 44 Twins 212
Chapter 45 Rupert 215
Chapter 46 How to Save a Life 220
Chapter 47 Spelling Bee 226
Chapter 48 Women in Parking Lots 229
Chapter 49 When All Else Fails 235
Chapter 50 Goodbye to the Man 240
Chapter 51 All the Silent Spaces 245
Epilogue: Running Unafraid 249
Afterword: Atrophy 253
Acknowledgments 257
