All the Wrong Places: A Life Lost and Found

Connors's memoir describes his efforts to make sense of the suicide of his brother, Dan. They were not very close at the time of this event, but he gradually comes to find that Dan's death, especially the manner of it, has become the defining moment of his life. Almost as a way of avoiding writing directly about the suicide, he spends the early part of his book discussing his experiences as a copy editor at the Wall Street Journal immediately following his brother's death. Gradually the details of Dan's suicide are revealed as Connors begins looking into the events surrounding it, searching for any clues as to why his brother killed himself. He eventually travels to New Mexico, where his brother was living at the time of his death, to obtain legal documents and talk to legal experts about the suicide. The author eventually moves to New Mexico to work as a fire lookout (as detailed in his previous memoir, Fire Season), in effect connecting with his brother, and making peace with his death.