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 his beloved San Fernando Valley, in each case wrestling with mysteries of heaven and earth. By the time he looks up, he has waded deep into the complications of later life—compromised love, family tragedy, and what it might mean to be a grownup in the 21st century West.