INKLINGS

From the editorial cartoonist for the Omaha World-Herald, a respectable debut memoir about his odd childhood, living with Tourette’s syndrome and overcoming it all to land his dream job.

Koterba grew up in the late ’60s in Omaha, the oldest of five children crammed in a small house made even smaller by his father’s junk. A budget operator for the Union Pacific Railroad, the author’s mercurial father supplemented his income by repairing televisions and other electronics that were piled throughout the house. Koterba’s description is aptly cartoon-like: “The basement is a mountain range of picture tubes and gutted Zeniths, RCAs and Motorolas…Wires and cords dangle from the cobwebbed ceiling like roots. Paths snake around cliffs of TVs and boxes marked PARTS and MISC.” The mess was a constant source of fighting between his parents. His mother was more nurturing than his father, who had nervous tics and a terrible temper. She praised Koterba’s drawings and overrode her husband’s penny-pinching when he forbade her from taking him to the dentist for a painful toothache. The author’s story is more about the dueling desires of protecting and escaping family than it is about his experience with Tourette’s. In fact, Koterba was not diagnosed until adulthood, when he saw a public-service announcement and wondered if his twitches were more than just nervous habits. His urges include jabbing his tongue in and out, smacking his forehead exactly five times, stretching his mouth into grotesque forms, repeating words (though no profanity) and sticking his fingers in the crevices of floors or corners of walls. He took playground beatings for his winking and was a shy young adult, but Koterba does not consider Tourette’s to be an obstacle in his professional life. Diagnosis was a relief and the “sophisticated and serious” name Tourette’s a “prize,” even more so when he was told that most who suffer from the condition are artists. The narrative is illustrated with pleasant sketches, though some of the cartoons that brought him success would have been welcome complements.

Koterba showcases his hidden literary talent with writing that is nostalgic without being sentimental.