The Crazy Wisdom

Memoir of a Friendship

by Christopher Shaw

The Crazy Wisdom
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The Crazy Wisdom

Memoir of a Friendship

by Christopher Shaw

Published Aug 27, 2021
216 Pages
Genre: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures



 

Book Details

"We get the archetypes we deserve."

Christopher Shaw met Jon Cody in 1972 when he moved to Stony Creek, New York, a remote hamlet in the southern Adirondacks. Their close and at times rocky friendship lasted until Cody's death in 2015.

In this sprawling, at times piercingly honest and direct memoir, Shaw recounts how Cody, the older one-armed dope dealer and fine leather craftsman, exasperated, supported, and goaded him, and how he found only late in their time together how Cody held the key to one of Shaw's biggest childhood mysteries.

What starts reading like a quaint regional narrative soon takes a number of surprising turns. It all takes place in the Adirondack backcountry and tourist meccas, enlivened by scenes from its wilds and its barrooms, and by the often confused expressions of love between men.

 

About the Author

Christopher Shaw

Christopher Shaw is the author of Sacred Monkey River: A Canoe Trip with the Gods (W.W. Norton, 2000), and the novel The Power Line (Miller Pond, Outskirts Press, 2020). He is a former editor of Adirondack Life and taught writing at Middlebury College for twenty years. cshaw.net Miller Pond Editions Saranac Lake, New York

Also by Christopher Shaw

The Power Line