SUNDAY AFTERNOONS AND OTHER TIMES REMEMBERED

An attorney describes moments of triumph and tragedy that have shaped his life.

Ewell’s memoir begins on a Saturday morning in April 1992—the day that his oldest brother, Dale, his sister-in-law, and niece were all laid to rest in a Fresno cemetery. They’d all been shot and killed on Easter Sunday, and Ewell’s nephew was responsible for their deaths. Throughout this remembrance, the strong influence that Dale had on the author throughout his life is palpable. Ewell tells of his beginnings on his family’s farm, not far from Cleveland, and is candid in his descriptions of both the serenity and harshness of rural life: “While there was beauty and peacefulness on the farm, there was ever-present suffering as well….Death was everywhere: the shooting of dogs by Dad if they chased sheep, the trapping and killing of animals for their fur that I participated in.” Later chapters cover his time in law school, starting in 1963, in the burgeoning countercultural mecca of San Francisco as well as his budding legal career, his first marriage and family life, eventual divorce, and remarriage in Fresno. Along the way, the author enters Republican politics, hobnobs with celebrity athletes, such as Michael Jordan and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young, and becomes a real estate and golf club developer. Over the course of this memoir, Ewell’s prose is pleasant, straightforward, and evocative. His descriptions of farm life are particularly vivid, as when he recalls how “evening dampness settled over the rows of raked, sweet-smelling alfalfa.” At times, however, he includes an overabundance of unnecessary detail that can slow the narrative; for example, the final, 25-page chapter of the book tediously recounts how “the never-ending lawsuits related to my divorce” threatened the author’s land-development project.

An often compelling life story that would have benefited from some streamlining.