Crank's was a restaurant in Copenhagen in the 1980s, which catered to a clientele seeking a different sort of meal, amiable contact, and infusions of unnamed herbs. Those entering the door under the "Crank's" sign received a dynamic that offered but did not impose eccentricity. The pieces in Crank were written over a 30-year period, and call on the experiences of 40. The "fiction" and "non-fiction" in its mix retain no more purity than they do, say,...