
Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life, by Dan Nadel, Scribner, 480 pages, $35
"In the spring of 1962, an 18-year-old Robert Crumb was beaned in the forehead by a solid glass ashtray. His mother, Bea, had hurled it at his father, Chuck, who ducked. Robert was bloodied and dazed, once again a silent and enraged witness to his family's chaos."