To say Nick Flynn has a complicated relationship with his father is an understatement.

According to Nick, his father, Jonathan, went through rough times, and he became homeless and an alcoholic. Nick writes that his dad spent time sleeping at the homeless shelter where Nick works, but was kicked out for being too hard to manage. Nick writes about how Jonathan spent time in prison and wrote several ignored letters to a judge while he was there. He also is a chronic liar and often makes things up, Nick writes, adding that sometimes the lies involved Ted Kennedy.

These and countless other memories are written out in Nick Flynn's memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir.

I noticed this book randomly in the PSU bookstore one day because the title and the cover grabbed my attention. When I saw it was only $5, I just had to buy it.

My impulse purchase turned out to be a good idea. The descriptions pulled me into this book, and I could easily pass hours reading it.

For example, in one section toward the middle of the book, Nick talks about how the homeless will lay on grates outside a library where hot air escapes. The book says, "The drunks fall there, drive by cops, by clubs, by the cold. Some inner radar keeps them alive, they stagger through the storm, blind drunk and goofy until they find the steam and then they fall. Like coming upon an oasis in the desert, their bodies melt into the grates, the steam seeps into their coats, into their pores."

Flynn organized the book in an unusual but interesting way. The stories tend to change focus quite a bit -- they switch back and from being about the recent past to the distant past, and they also change from centering on Jonathan to centering on Nick. People with short attention spans will appreciate the way the book is organized because the story isn't centered on one time or place for very long.

In general, Another Bullshit Night In Suck City was heartrending, creative and raw. I'm not sure how much of it is true -- hopefully most of it, since it's described as a memoir. However, this book was excellent from cover to cover and I'd forgive the author even if everything written was false. Grade: A