My Eccentric Family

An eyewitness account of major 20th century social movements

Born a red-diaper baby, Norman Cantor, as a 4 and 1/2 year-old in 1947, first experiences the vicious public hostility toward his father, a major figure in Communist Party USA:

"I hear and see a hostile crowd assembled on the street below our apartment. I can't make out the words they're yelling, but I sense the shrill, threatening tone. Suddenly, I glimpse flames shooting upward from below. Someone in the crowd has ignited the awning of my grandfather's liquor store. The flames get doused, but I am terrified."

His father goes underground and Norman gets raised by a mother who was a pioneering women's lawyer promoting civil rights and workers' interests.

During a distinguished career as a law professor, Cantor pioneers in advancing the "death with dignity" movement. First, as a participant in the landmark Quinlan case that set the pattern for American end-of-life jurisprudence. More recently, as an advocate for people intent on avoiding immersion in advanced Alzheimer's disease.

Finally, Cantor becomes a participant in the liberal Zionist movement seeking to maintain a Jewish homeland in Israel with full citizenship and civil rights for all its inhabitants.

My Eccentric Family is a rare journey with universal lessons that is simultaneously a deeply personal memoir and an incisive work of history. Includes engaging encounters with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, mafia kingpin Angelo Bruno, and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.