"In his sensitive debut memoir, essayist, biographer, and nonfiction writer Kanigel (b. 1946) recounts his life in the 1960s, crucial years when the Vietnam War roiled the country and he confronted his unsettled future. Thoughtful, candid reminiscences from a veteran writer." KIRKUS REVIEWS "In his absorbing memoir, the acclaimed journalist Robert Kanigel finally turns his keen eye on himself, taking the reader on his journey from shy youth in the conformist 1950s to full-blooded personhood in the liberating tumult of the 1960s and leaving us just as he starts what was to be a long and brilliant writing career. Tender, reflective, witty, rueful, always honest, and always good company, Kanigel reveals himself with eloquent simplicity and rare candor. A tour de force of self-examination, Young Man, Muddled opens a window onto the origin story of an extraordinary life." --ELLEN PALL, AUTHOR, MUST READ WELL "Kanigel is a great biographer. He has a marvelous gift for finding interesting characters and using them to reveal the world in which they lived, and which they usually helped to shape.

In this book, he trains his sights on himself. Writing with revealing honesty and marvelous grace, he uses the story of his own life to illuminate an important moment in American life." -- CHARLES DUFF, AUTHOR, THE NORTH ATLANTIC CITIES.