The house was small, built on the GI Bill. In its knotty-pine kitchen, beneath the gaze of countless wooden eyes darkened by cigarette smoke, "My dad told war stories." Scores of war stories, for endless hours, for years, in unusual detail. Tom Ahern has authored a dozen books. Today, he is an internationally recognized expert on charity communications. He also won an NEA Fellowship in fiction. This is his untamed memoir of growing...