Ten years ago , he had returned to his hometown , the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles , to wrap up his undergraduate degree , and to wrestle with his coming-of-age issues -- a father he described as a corporate raider and a '' monster '' -LRB- they are not in contact -RRB- and a loving but difficult mother who , he recalled , '' could turn me into a door-slamming , bug-eyed crazy person . ''