Crazy Wisdom

Christopher Shaw met Jon Cody in 1972 when he moved to Stony Creek, New York, a remote hamlet in the southern Adirondacks. Their close and at times rocky friendship lasted until Cody's death in 2015. In this sprawling, at times piercingly honest and direct memoir, Shaw recounts how Cody, the older one-armed dope dealer and fine leather craftsman, exasperated, supported, and goaded him, and how he found only late in their time together how Cody held the key to one of Shaw's biggest childhood mysteries. What starts reading like a quaint regional narrative soon takes a number of surprising turns. It all takes place in the Adirondack backcountry and tourist meccas, enlivened by scenes from its wilds and its barrooms, and by the often confused expressions of love between men.