As I Knew Him:: My Dad, Rod Serling
Tuck away those chilling memories of post­apocalyptic librarians and monsters hanging on to airplane wings. Serling’s memoir of her father is an altogether gentler affair that forgoes backlot minutiae (Marc Scott Zicree’s The Twilight Zone Companion, 1982, is your best bet for that) and instead focuses on the overworked but jolly man she knew as Dad. Rod Serling was 50 when he died from conditions exacerbated by his well-known smoking addiction, and Anne just 20, so it’s no surprise her recollections are somewhat sepia-tinged. Family trips, rascally pets, and good-natured pranks dominate, with The Twilight Zone making sporadic appearances, mostly via intriguing insertions into the text to illustrate how details of Rod’s personal life bled over into his scripts. Most affecting are Rod’s letters home from the war, where he formed his virulent antiprejudice views and encountered demons that only a lifetime of writing could slay. The present-tense prose makes things a bit awkward (My dad is truly on his way), but for Serling completists this is a welcome alternative view—submitted for your ­approval. --Daniel Kraus