David Senra

So when he starts spending time with the Italian side of his family, he sees a different way of being.

And so his Italian grandfather, this is very fascinating, says he was my grandfather.

And he's able to tell an entire story in a few words.

Describing his grandfather, he says he served three years in the Navy, had three wives, spent three years in Sing Sing prison.

And so he continues to talk about the influence of spending time with his grandfather when he was a very little kid.

Right.

He says something made him seem grand, important, not part of the passive, aggressive, wandering, lost male tribe that populated much of the rest of my life.

He was a force of nature.

So what if he got into a little trouble?

The real world was full of trouble.

And if you wanted, if you hungered, you'd better be ready for it.

You'd best be ready to stake your claim and not let go because, quote, they were not going to give it to you for free.

You would have to risk and to pay.

His love of living, the intensity of his presence, his engagement in the day and his dominion over his family made him a unique male figure in my life.

He was exciting, scary, theatrical, self-mythologizing, bragging.

He was like a rock star.

And what you realize when you read this book is every single experience that Bruce encounters, he pulls into his work.

There is no separation between him and his work.

And so he talks about what he learned from his family and how it influenced his work.

There is a strength, fear, and desperate joy in all of this hard spirit and soul that naturally found its way into my work.