Codeine Diary: A Memoir

At times discursive, Andrews's memoir covers his traumas and triumphs as a poet, teacher, motorcycle racer--and hemophiliac. The triumphs include establishing a mark in the Guinness Book of World Records for continuous clapping (14 hours, 31 minutes) as an 11-year-old and living a full life by ""outwitting"" his disease. Andrews relates the trauma of various bleeding episodes and the death of an older brother from kidney disease, an event that, according to Andrews, haunts him even more than his own affliction. The book is most involving when explaining the horrors of hemophilia: Andrews (Hymning the Kanawha) reports that 90% of hemophiliacs who received regular blood infusions between 1978 and early 1985 carry HIV (he has remained negative to date). His explanations of the dangers and treatments of ""bleeds"" are thorough and engrossing, but the narrative loses momentum in sections in which random humor is attempted or trivial conversations are reconstructed. Andrews is adept at expressive phrases and insightful observations, but his effectiveness is sometimes undermined by a lack of focus. (Feb.)