If you said that you would come on this or that day, even though the context would have made it clear to anyone else that this was no promise, merely the declaration of your intention, he would hold you to it as though you had promised, and would sometimes call you a liar if you did not come. This was not mere cantankerousness but, as with his inability to understand self-deception, a conceptual matter.

You and me both, Romulus. This deeply caring biography of the author's father details his early years in Australia, the story of his turbulent marriage, and his fatherhood. A bittersweet read that got me in the mood for my visit to Victoria.