One You Get

In The One You Get: Portrait of a Family Organism, Jason Tougaw marries neuroscience and family lore to tell his story of growing up gay in 1970s Southern California, raised by hippies who had "e;dropped out"e; in the late sixties and couldn't seem to find their way back in. "e;There's something wrong with our blood,"e; the family mantra ran, "e;and it affects our brains"e;-a catchall answer for incidents such as Tougaw's schizophrenic great-grandfather directing traffic in the nude on the Golden Gate Bridge, the author's own dyslexia and hypochondria, and the near-death experience of his notorious jockey grandfather, Ralph Neves.With shades of Oliver Sacks and Susannah Cahalan, this honest and unexpected true story recasts the memoir to answer some of life s big questions: Where did I come from, How did I become me, and What happens when the family dog accidentally overdoses on acid?