Vanishings is a stunning collection of autobiographical narratives that propel us into the life and mind of a literary genius. "Yams were in stories about Africa that I read in Sunday school. Tribes ate them, villagers who still carried spears and stared at missionaries who visited them to explain Jesus. I was out of college before I willingly ate a yam, filling a groove I cut in its skin with butter and brown sugar a minute before I took it from...