The author reminisces about growing up on a 200-acre farm in the southern Minnesota prairie during the 1960s and 1970s, depicting a youth filled with curiosity and fascination about his world.

"This inquiry into matters of heart, conducted under the shadows of pending surgery, awakens themes of boyhood, education, and marriage and prompt questions about loyalty to a deceased father, connections with immigrant grandparents, loss and rediscovery of faith, and solitude versus community. A medical narrative, the book also chronicles a span of contemporary American life. Throughout Amato's account, the consistent reminder of his upcoming bypass...