Complex sentence: Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Darnielle grew up in Central California with an abusive stepfather (as referenced frequently in "The Sunset Tree") and after high school, he went to work as a psychiatric nurse at the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, California.
Split into simpler sentences: Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Darnielle grew up in Central California with an abusive stepfather (as referenced frequently in "The Sunset Tree"). Afterwards, he returned to California and went to work as a psychiatric nurse at the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, California.