Perhaps no one knew the intensely private William Faulkner better than his brother John. At the time of Bill's funeral, a reporter remarked that seeing John walking the streets of Oxford, Mississippi was like encountering the ghost of his brother. Indeed, John and Bill were mirrors of one another in many ways. In this memoir we find an intimate and at times humorous portrait of William and his brothers from childhood through adulthood.

John provides a keen view of the local characters and situations which Bill later used in his novels.