FREE DANCING

A collection of anecdotal essays about retired professor of medicine Brigham’s self-described “accidental” life.

The author was born in Nashville just before the start of World War II; his birth, he believes, was unplanned though not unwelcome. He describes himself as a “hopelessly neurotic” child, prone to crying jags: “There was pretty much nothing that could happen in that classroom at Nashville’s Glenn Elementary School that I would respond to with anything other than tears.” Yet Brigham would go on to achieve enormous success in a life that was as unplanned as it was interesting. When he was 12, his father, a Nashville bus driver, fulfilled his own dream of going back to the land by moving the family to a farm outside the city. In 1958, Brigham was part of a local high school rock band called the Crescendos; in the same year, the band had a Billboard-charting hit recording, “Oh Julie,” and went on the road with the Biggest Show of Stars, a conglomerate of one-hit wonders and well-known rock ’n’ roll musicians of the day. (Famous headliners included Sam Cooke and Chuck Berry.) It was an eye-opening experience for the anxious farm boy. Years later, Brigham, to his own astonishment, was accepted into the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville. It was the beginning of an illustrious career in biomedical research that afforded him the opportunity to travel the world. These genial essays, rendered in polished, compelling prose, are frequently touched by a bit of philosophical whimsy. As the author suggests up front, his life didn’t follow an intentionally determined trajectory; rather, he frequently just went with the flow, making the most of opportunities as they came his way. In an eclectic assortment of tales, he conveys an unbridled enthusiasm for work, travel, and sailing and tells of special friendships that developed from serendipitous encounters. Much of the memoir concerns these unique relationships and the experiences they afforded him. Overall, it’s a highlight reel of memories that occasionally jumps around in time, but it’s often punctuated by ponderings on the meaning of life.

Upbeat and engaging stories bolstered by accounts of world travel.