Between Panic and Desire

Dinty W. Moore is a professor of English at Ohio University and the author of several books, including Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy: Advice and Confessions on Writing, Love, and Cannibals, The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction, and The Accidental Buddhist: Mindfulness, Enlightenment, and Sitting Still.

• AcknowledgmentsPrologue: Between Panic and DesirePart One. Panic1. Introduction: Hello, My Name Is _______2. Son of Mr. Green Jeans: A Meditation on Missing Fathers3. Double Vision4. Son of Richard M. Nixon5. Three Bad Trips, 1968-776. Questions and Activities before ContinuingPart Two. Paranoia7. Introduction: Imagine That8. Baseball, Hot Dogs, Mescaline, and Chevrolet9. Number Nine10. 198411. Questions and Activities before ContinuingPart Three. Desire12. Introduction: Why Oprah Doesn't Call13. Son of George McManus14. Three Milestones15. Leonard Koan16. Son of a Bush17. Three Days in September18. What You Want, What You Get, What You Need: A Post-Nixon, Post-panic, Post-modern, Post-mortem19. "Curtis Knows Best": Towering, Permanent, Perilous, and Soon to be Televised on a Widescreen Near You20. The Final ChapterIndexAbout the Author

"[A] quirky, entertaining joyride."—Publishers Weekly "The writing is frequently very funny; insightful, too, especially Moore's belief that humans are generally delusional when it comes to their expectations vs. what is realistically possible. . . . The narrative has its poignant moments, particularly in Moore's recollections of his father. And despite his fractured take on the world, his message is essentially hopeful. Moore, it seems, is moving on."—Robert Kelly, Library Journal "Between Panic and Desire is more autopsy than memoir—a strange new hybrid. It's a fantasy of letting go of the things that have haunted Moore his entire life. These things do, in fact, float off the pages."—Los Angeles Times "Moore forges a brisk, incisive, funny, sometimes silly, yet stealthily affecting memoir in essays and skits, a 'generational autobiography,' and good candid guy stuff. . . . Each anecdote, piece of pop-culture trivia, and frankly confessed panic and desire yields a chunk of irony and a sliver of wisdom."—Donna Seaman, Booklist   "This book is funny, funny, funny. It is an unconventional—some might say, experimental—collection of frolicsome and touching personal essays. . . . [T]he book is a rare example of how unusual form actually helps. It is the ideal display for Dinty's imagination. He daydreams. He fantasizes. He hallucinates. And this is nonfiction. For anyone who thinks the genre is nothing more than a retelling of facts, pick up a copy of Between Panic and Desire. . . . It is literary nonfiction with integrity. And it's fun."—Oxford Town "Between Panic and Desire turns the memoir genre on its head as it deftly moves from essay to essay."—Peter Grandbois, Review of Contemporary Fiction