Table of Contents
Prelude ix
1 Memoirs of an Amnesiac 1
2 Last Call 10
3 The Power of the Just-Dead 23
4 Kill 'Em and Leave 2.0 34
5 Daddy Dearest I: The Bad Son 54
6 Daddy Dearest II: The Good Son 77
7 "The Problem for Superheroes Is What to Do Between Phone Booths" 89
8 Bailer 101
9 High School 115
10 The Teenage Auteur 125
11 Purple Rain: "Dancin' in the Dark" 139
12 In This Life You're on Your Own 153
13 The Crack-Up, Act 1 159
14 The Crack-Up, Act 2 174
15 The Crack-Up, Act 3: A Has-Been is Born, 1998 184
16 The New Millennium: You Gotta Serve Somebody-Jehovah and Bob Dylan's Rabbi 201
17 "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" 211
18 Sonny Liston's Grave 218
19 Laughs, Lies, and Learning from Others 227
20 Minnesota Mean 241
21 Coda 260
Postscript-PrinceLit 289
Acknowledgments 299
Timeline 303
Endnotes 309
Bibliography 323
Index 326
Photo credits 336