The Sum and Total of Now

It is the summer of 1948. Thirteen-year-old Morris Bird III lives in Cleveland with his parents and little sister. His mother aggravates him, his sister is a pain, and his father’s radio personality ego is out of control—as is Morris’s own body when in the presence of girls. But over in Columbus, his grandmother, Alice Anna Bird, is dying. She is the greatest influence on his life and cancer is stealing her away from him.

As his parents and aunts and uncles bicker over his grandmother’s b...