Boy Wonders

Book excerpt: "In this intimate and humorous memoir about how childhood passions shape our adult selves, Cathal Kelly probes his youthful obsessions--from Star Wars to the Blue Jays, The Lord of the Rings to The Smiths. Vividly recalling a time when wearing a zippered, chainmail-laden Michael Jackson jacket seemed like a good idea, and The Beachcombers--"an adventure show about logging"--Seemed to make sense, Kelly recounts growing up in the 1980s in a working-class Irish household as the son of a tough Catholic mother and a largely absent and abusive alcoholic father. Navigating an often fraught and always bewildering youth, Kelly sought refuge in comics, books, bands, games, movies and TV. But looking back, he realizes that his obsession with Dungeons and Dragons or Who Framed Roger Rabbit was never just about the game or movie, but about the joy in discovery and the creation of an identity."--