Burdens by Water: An Unintended Memoir

In a series of strangely resilient personal adventures—often beginning with breakups, and fueled by a sense of "invincible longing"—essayist Alan Rifkin flings himself at the last vestiges of the Southern California Dream. He chases summer with a pool man, lives with monks in a Santa Barbara monastery, joins a dysfunctional Los Angeles writing club, communes with wild dolphins, traces the steps of Otzi the Iceman, emulates a Bible-based marriage, and confronts his mother's last season in hi...