Prize Stock, the first of the novels included in Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, depicts the relationship between a Japanese boy and a black American airman captured during the second world war. Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, the title story, is a semi-autobiographical account of a father coming to terms with his brain-damaged son. Aghwee The Sky Monster is about a young man's first job - chaperoning a banker's son. In The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away, the narrator lies on his hospital bed eagerly waiting to die of cancer.