Book excerpt: Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. An instant classic, NO PERMANENT SCARS reads how creative nonfiction should read: like fiction. Like nonfiction. Like memoir. Like humor. Like literature. Like life. It's about childhood, adulthood, the neighborhood, and what it means to be a kid, a parent, a teacher, a human. Michael Hemery illuminates an honest working-class existence, offering both the sober realities of class discrimination and the humor and love of family. Intertwined with serious issues such as suicide, alcoholism, abuse, religion, and immigration, Hemery also endures a painfully slow and often naive coming of age (he once mistook an obvious prostitute for an office supply store employee). This is going to be the best book you'll read this year.