Thumper Grows Up begins where Thumper left off, with Thumper leaving home to become a writer, but needing something to write about. Always accompanied by his journals he meets more fascinating characters, capturing sometimes funny, sometimes tragic stories and impressions as he lives his "bohemian" life. The stories describe life in Worcester, Provincetown and San Francisco. His first friends include artists, writers, poets, anarchists and drug users, gay and straight. He meets his first love and endures the heartbreak that ensues. He travels across the country, creates a failed socio-economic creative community modeled on Haight Ashbury and develops, then breaks a heroin habit which prematurely ends a promising musical career. And he becomes so distracted by these colorful experiences that he forgets to write the book, until now.
The Farm bridges childhood and adulthood with memories of the mostly idyllic times he spent at his uncle's farm in Wendell, MA. The interludes at the farm with his cousins are some of his most vivid memories. Over four seasons his time at The Farm, from age 8 to mid-30s, offers touching vignettes that give insight into how Thumper's life evolved.