The chief subject of the memoir is Matthew McConaughey himself, born in 1969 as the unplanned third son of Kay and Jim McConaughey. Jim jokingly questioned his paternity and was not present at the birth, leading McConaughey to feel close with his mother, while simultaneously trying to impress his father. Although he is handsome, athletic and a straight A student, in his father’s eyes, he does not come of age until he proves himself in a fight, following his return from Australia.

McConaughey’s year in Australia, where his Americanness is mocked by the Dooleys and he has neither academic success, nor popularity with girls gives him “the ability to respect winter. I was on my own, for a full year. […] Forced to look inside because I didn’t have anyone else. […] I lost my crutches” (Location 1010). Here, McConaughey learned what it was like to have all the ego boosts he had taken for granted stripped away from him, and how to make meaning for himself regardless. His attempts at vegetarianism, abstinence and writing during this year are a means of self-exploration and self-challenge. Later, as he becomes an actor who is unchallenged by his romantic-comedy repertoire, he uses his one-man adventures in the Amazon and Mali to keep his interior world rich and vivid.