When  the admired writer — Election, Little Children, The Leftovers — was off at college, he got some unsettling news from his beloved cousin Mike: “He was a really talented indie rocker, but he ended up with a bunch of his friends playing in a wedding band.” This became the basis for The Wishbones, whose protagonist believes such bands emit “the unmistakable odor of mediocrity.” The cruel judgment of youth. The deeper sympathy of later life.