Love and Shame and Love sisters first each of us can achieve

each of us can achieve life to the fullest -- until it overflows

we only thought we knew

who spares no one from his seething gaze

a dentist with a nicotine habit

Love and Shame and Love sisters first each of us can achieveAlexander Popper can't stop remembering. Four years old when his father tossed him into Lake Michigan, he was told, Sink or swim, kid. In his mind, he's still bobbing in that frigid water. The rest of this novel's vivid cast of characters also struggle to remain afloat: Popper's mother, stymied by an unhappy marriage, seeks solace in the relentless energy of Chicago; his brother, Leo, shadow boss of the family, retreats into books; paternal