“THE SHINING … BUT FUNNIER.”

That’s how Sullivan describes his memoir Thirty Rooms to Hide In: Insanity, Addiction, and Rock ’n’ Roll in the Shadow of the Mayo Clinic. It’s the story of six boys growing up in a huge dark house in Minnesota, as the father—a respected surgeon—goes slowly insane. With winters raging outside and the father raging within, it is their mother’s protection that enables the boys to have a wildly fun, thoroughly dysfunctional time growing up. With dark humor as the coin of their realm, and the Beatles as true north on their compass of Cool, the band of brothers make movies, start a rock & roll group, and wisecrack their way through a grim landscape of their father’s insanity, Eisenhower’s Cold War, fallout shelters, and JFK’s assassination. (Available on amazon.com.)