The Bottom is a mostly black neighborhood in Ohio, situated in the hills above the mostly white, wealthier community in the town of Medallion. The Bottom first became a community when a master gave it to his former slave. This "gift" was in fact a trick: the master gave the former slave a poor stretch of hilly land, convincing the slave the land was worthwhile by claiming that because it was hilly, it was closer to heaven. The trick, though, led to the growth of a vibrant community. Now the community faces a new threat; wealthy whites have taken a liking to the land, and would like to destroy much of the town in order to build a golf course. Shadrack, a resident of the Bottom, fought in World War I. He returns a shattered man, unable to accept the complexities of the world; he lives on the outskirts of town, attempting to create order in his life. One of his methods involves compartmentalizing his fear of death in a ritual he invents and names National Suicide Day. The town is at first wary of him and his ritual, then, over time, unthinkingly accepts him. Meanwhile, the families of the children Nel and Sula are contrasted. Nel is the product of a family that believes deeply in social conventions; hers is a stable home, though some might characterize it as rigid. Nel is uncertain of the conventional life her mother, Helene, wants for her; these doubts are hammered home when she meets Rochelle, her grandmother and a former prostitute, the only unconventional woman in her family line. Sula''s family is very different: she lives with her grandmother, Eva, and her mother, Hannah, both of whom are seen by the town as eccentric and loose. Their house also serves as a home for three informally adopted boys and a steady stream of boarders. Despite their differences, Sula and Nel become fiercely attached to each other during adolescence. However, a traumatic accident changes everything. One day, Sula playfully swings a neighborhood boy, Chicken Little, around by his hands. When she loses her grip, the boy falls into a nearby river and drowns. They never tell anyone about the accident even though they did not intend to harm the boy. The two girls begin to grow apart. One day Sula''s mother''s dress catches fire and she dies of the burns. Eva, her mother, sees her from the window and jumps out into the garden. After high school, Nel chooses to marry and settles into the conventional role of wife and mother. Sula follows a wildly divergent path and lives a life of fierce independence and total disregard for social conventions. Shortly after Nel''s wedding, Sula leaves the Bottom for a period of 10 years. She has many affairs, some, it is rumored, with white men. However, she finds people following the same boring routines elsewhere, so she returns to the Bottom and to Nel. Upon her return, the town regards Sula as the very personification of evil for her blatant disregard of social conventions. Their hatred in part rests upon Sula''s interracial relationships, but is crystallized when Sula has an affair with Nel''s husband, Jude, who subsequently abandons Nel. Ironically, the community''s labeling of Sula as evil actually improves their own lives. Her presence in the community gives them the impetus to live harmoniously with one another. Nel breaks off her friendship with Sula. Just before Sula dies in 1940, they achieve a half-hearted reconciliation. With Sula''s death, the harmony that had reigned in the town quickly dissolves.

Sula

In paranoid delusion, a moribund U.S. Air Force (USAF) general, thinking to make the world a better place, unilaterally launches an airborne, preemptive, nuclear attack upon the USSR, from his command at the Sonora, Texas, Strategic Air Command (SAC) bomber base, by ordering the 843rd bomber wing to attack, per war plan "Wing Attack Plan R"—which would authorize a lower-echelon SAC commander to retaliate after an enemy first strike has decapitated the U.S. Government. He attacks with the entire B-52 bomber wing of new airplanes each armed with two nuclear weapons and protected with electronic countermeasures to prevent the Soviets from shooting them down. When the U.S. President and Cabinet become aware the attack is underway, they assist the Soviet defense interception of the USAF bombers; to little effect, because the Soviets destroy only two bombers and damage one, the Alabama Angel, that remains airborne and en route to target. The U.S. Government re-establishes the SAC airbase chain-of-command, but the suicidal general who launched the attack—the only man knowing the recall code—kills himself before capture and interrogation; however, his executive officer correctly deduces the recall code from among the general''s desk pad doodles. The code is transmitted to and received by the surviving bomber airplanes and are successfully recalled, minutes before bombing their targets in the Soviet Union—save for the Alabama Angel—whose earlier-damaged radio prevents its recalling, and it progresses to its target. In a last effort to avert a Soviet–American nuclear war, the U.S. President offers the Soviet Premier the compensatory right to destroy a U.S. city, offering Atlantic City, New Jersey, however, at the final moment, the Alabama Angel fails to destroy its target and nuclear catastrophe is averted.

Red Alert

Joshua Shapiro, successful writer and pundit, lying in a hospital room, seems to have lost his wife and is in the middle of a sex scandal. Compelled to find meaning in his life, he reviews it from his youth to the present day. Joshua grew up as a Jew in the working class St. Urbain Street area in Montreal. His upbringing was unusual because his father was a boxer who had become a gentle crook and his mother was a strip-tease dancer. Embarrassingly, she strips for his friends as part of a Bar Mitzvah party for him. Joshua''s father is revealed to have a unique perspective on life, sex, and religion. A trip to Spain as a young man is the impetus that sparks a career as a journalist and writer. In England in a momentary lapse of reason, Joshua forges letters about a (fake) homosexual affair with a British writer to sell to an American university archive. He meets an upper-class Canadian married to a poser of a communist and steals her away to become his own wife. She is the daughter of a Canadian senator and Joshua''s key into a level of society of which he is quite contemptuous. In the meantime, Joshua''s childhood friends have become successful in their own right. They soon become targets of pranks as he settles various scores. Joshua''s conceited brother-in-law assumes a pivotal role in the novel as it is revealed that he is insecure and vulnerable. Neighbors in the wealthy cottage community around Lake Memphremagog lead him astray with dreadful consequences. Past indiscretions rear their ugly heads and Joshua must put together the shambles of his life.

Joshua Then and Now

A rainy day in Philadelphia means no baseball; Peter Brown, the child protagonist introduced by Thompson in The Gnome King of Oz, mopes in his attic. He finds the sacks that were full of gold when he brought them back from his previous Oz adventure; and one of those sacks contains an odd gold coin. Toying with the coin and thinking of Oz, he wishes himself back in the magic land &mdash; and suddenly finds himself in the front yard of Jack Pumpkinhead. The sensible thing for Peter to do is to head for the Emerald City; and Jack is ready to act as his guide. This is perhaps not the best arrangement &mdash; and the two quickly get lost in the Quadling Country, where they blunder into Chimneyville and Scare City. By chance, Peter finds that his empty sack will consume objects and creatures that are scooped into its open mouth. The two also happen to obtain the magic dinner bell of Jinnicky the Red Jinn, which supplies Peter with needed provisions. The travelers adopt a third member for their party when they meet the doggerel-spouting Snif the Iffin (he''s a griffin who has lost his "gr-"). The three then encounter the unfortunate Belfaygor, the Baron of Bourne. He has been accidentally cursed with a rapidly-growing beard that he must constantly snip away. Even worse, his fiancée, the princess Shirley Sunshine, has been kidnapped by the local villain, Mogodore the Mighty, the Baron of Baffleburg. Boy, baron, iffin and pumpkinhead set out to remedy this situation, and quickly become enwrapped in complexities involving a Forbidden Flagon and a talkative and abusive Sauce Box. When Mogodore sets out to conquer Oz and actually succeeds in seizing the Emerald City, the travelers have to mount a desperate rescue effort. Eventually Jack, with help from the Red Jinn (here introduced for the first time; his name, Jinnicky, is not revealed until later books), manages to save the day: with the Forbidden Flagon, he reduces Mogodore and his thousand warriors to little beings "no bigger than brownies." The miniaturized aggressors are confined to their homeland, also miniaturized. Snif the Iffin recovers his lost "gr-." Order in Oz is restored, with a great celebratory banquet before Peter is sent home, with thanks, once again.

Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz

The Slab Boys is set in the Slab Room of A. F. Stobo & Co. Carpet Manufactures. This story focuses on a handful of young people who have to grow up fast in the tough working-class culture of 1950s industrial Scotland. It is a semi autobiographical work. The play is set in 1957, the year Byrne worked in Stoddard''s carpet factory as a slab boy, and the year Byrne applied to Glasgow Art School. In 1958 he was accepted to the Art School, unlike the character Phil McCann, whose application was refused. He described the factory as a ‘technicolour hell hole’.. Byrne was raised in Ferguslie Park, Paisley not far from the carpet factory. The opening scene introduces the three incumbent slab boys bantering away on a Friday morning. Phil and Spanky are the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid of the slab room and Hector is the target and source of most of their humour. Enter, Mr. Curry, the boss, who is always trying to shame Phil and Spanky into doing some actual work. Unfortunately, Phil and Spanky are far too clever to fall for that old ruse. In comes Jack Hogg. He used to be a slab boy, but has come up in the world and is now a designer. This is not as grand as it sounds – he is only one step further up the ladder and Phil and Spanky never let him forget it. Jack brings with him Alan Downie – an obviously better off youngster whose father knows the boss, and who is going to work in the company for a while before going off to University. This does not endear him to Phil or Spanky. Once some of the early hilarity subsides, we learn that Phil''s mother has been yet-again incarcerated in a ward for the mentally unstable. We also find out the real reason for Phil being late this morning: he was presenting his portfolio at the Glasgow School of Art. He is now waiting on a phone call that will tell him how he got on. Eventually, Sadie, the world-weary tea-lady, wanders in. She is wise to Phil and Spanky, but is charmed by Alan''s superior manners. Sadie is also selling tickets for the Staff Dance that takes place that night. To everyone''s amazement Hector buys two, and reveals that his mystery date is Lucille – a beautiful young woman who clearly has herself set on someone better looking, and probably more importantly, richer, than Hector. Finally, in strolls Lucille. Phil and Spanky badger her for details about Hector''s courtship and it transpires that it is only in Hector''s fantasy-world that she is going with him. The two turn on Hector but end up feeling rather sorry for him and resolve to help him win the fair dame. How they do this is by crudely tailoring his already crudely-tailored clothing and attempting to give him a haircut but succeed only in injuring his scalp with the scissors. After the lunch-break (which provides the interval in the play), the Slab Boys re-assemble. Lucille appears and Phil starts to broach the subject of Hector – he''s going to ask Lucille out on Hector''s behalf. Before he can reach the punch line, Hector''s bloodied face appears at the window and terrifies her. They are hiding him while his clothes are being "altered". There thus ensues some typical farce as Hector is hidden during various walk-ons by Jack, Lucille and Mr. Curry. Sadie re-appears for the afternoon tea-break and bemoans her useless husband. It appears that, following a recent mastectomy, he even threw out her prosthetic breast, believing it to be a burst football. She advises Lucille to avoid men and the trouble they cause. At last Phil gets round to asking Lucille about the Staffie. Thinking he is asking on his own behalf, she agrees to go with him. Phil points out he was actually asking on the behalf of Hector. Lucille bluntly refuses. The wages come round while Phil is out and Spanky is perturbed to find that Phil''s and Hector''s are missing – they will come round later having been specially made up. This suggests that they are going to be sacked. This is indeed the case for Phil, but then Hector comes in looking rather shocked and Phil and Spanky assume he has also been sacked. However, to their surprise, is actually getting promoted to the design room. Alan then enters and delivers Phil another piece of bad news. He has just taken a phone call for Phil, and curtly tells him that he did not get in to the Art School. While he is digesting this a note arrives that his mother, who had briefly escaped from the asylum, is back in custody. Finally, Curry appears. Phil blows off at him over the sacking but Curry retorts that he actually stood up for Phil. Spanky knuckles under and gets back to grinding the paste as Phil, all his hopes gone, leaves the stage.

The Slab Boys Trilogy

The reader is introduced to the character of Dr. Lysvet ''Liv'' Alverhuysen at the Koenigswald Academy, where she has taught for years. A letter has come for her dead husband, a plea to come west to the edge of the world and the House of Dolorous, a hospital who takes in all wounded, regardless of which side of the war they were injured on. She begins her difficult journey with the help of the school janitor, a brain damaged but extremely large man who wants nothing more than to protect her. John Creedmore is relaxing on a ferryboat, enjoying being out of the war, when his masters, the Gun, summon him to take on a new mission. He is to go to the House of Dolorous and retrieve (but not kill) an old man believe to have secrets of a great weapon from the First Folk, wild people who live in the hills, that can kill the Line engines, which are the alternate version of the Gun. Down the Line, Lowry is tasked with the same mission. He goes about it in the opposite way from Creedmore, as an army is essentially brought in to support him. Creedmore, having continued to ride through the death of several horses, reaching the town of Kloan and decides he needs a break, contrary to his master''s wishes. They reluctantly concede and he wanders through the town looking for entertainment. Instead, soldiers of the Line recognize him and the town is turned into an all-out battleground as Creedmore escapes. Lowry and his support men flood the town hours afterward, but they are too late. Instead, they set up an outpost and prepare to wait until Creedmore attempts to leave with the General. Creedmore tricks his way into the House of Dolorous because his usual method of killing is impossible in the House, which is protected by a guardian who will kill anyone who kills. Liv arrives at the same time, after a difficult journey. She unwittingly picks the General as one of her two psychology subjects to study and attempt to cure, and when Creedmore springs his trap, distracting the guardian with the pain and suffering of all the patients at once, she is carried along with the General as they head west, the only place where they can escape the Line. The soldier of the Line follow, but the going is much rougher for them in the wild west, because they are dependent upon their technology which has not yet stretched this far. Afraid of any type of failure, Lowry presses on as his soldiers dwindle. Liv and the General are discovered by what is left of the Red Valley Republic, who had moved as far west as they could years ago with their General''s defeat. They call their town New Design. Creedmore has gone off to try to slay a dragon-like creature for the thrill of the hunt. His masters'' voices come and go now and he sometimes thinks disloyal thoughts about them, which they note upon their return. They threaten to harm him, but he laughs it off, knowing he is the only one they have out here with the General. Liv and the General are made welcome in the New Design, but Liv can''t shake off how ill-prepared the town is, even as she warns them the Line is coming. The Line comes. The town fights, but falters until Creedmore decides to throw in his hand and save most of them. During the mop up, he takes the General and Liv follows. The six remaining men of the Line follow. Liv senses that Creedmore''s masters will not allow him to act in his own accord, and when she gets her chance, she stabs him repeatedly with her knife, even as he heals. She causes enough damage that the Linesmen catch up to a broken Creedmore and are able to subdue him, and they blow up his Gun, which has tied him to his masters for so many years. Once the Gun is destroyed, Liv steps forward and kills the two remaining Linesmen. The General had been shot when Liv first attacked Creedmore, and he tells them his dying story of where he had been going to find the weapon. Creedmore is still tied up, but Liv cannot decide if she will free him or let him die for his crimes committed at whim of the Gun. She eventually frees him.

The Half-Made World

Morton Cargill, Korean War soldier, accidentally kills a girl named Marie while driving drunk. He runs from the scene. A year later, he gets a letter from the girl asking to meet him. But this is not Marie, but a remote descendant from the future, who is suffering an inherited form of neurosis which time travelers, called ''The Shadows'', have traced back to his negligent crime. The only therapy to cure her is if she witnesses him being murdered. He then wakes 400 years into the future, to the Shadow City to be executed. He escapes, with help from Ann Reece, who represents a group called ''Tweeners'', who are organized by a Shadow named Grannis. Grannis is apparently a traitor to the Shadows and wishes the Tweeners to attack and destroy the Shadow City. Cargill is overcome by suspicions against the Tweeners, so during his rescue he escapes into the woods where he is immediately captured. His captors this time are futuristic nomads or ''trailer trash'' called ''Planiacs'' who live in floating airships. The Planiacs have rejected civilization and its intolerable psychological pressures. Their airships are stocked and repaired by the Shadows, and they live utterly purposeless lives floating from place to place, occasionally stopping to fish. Grannis the Shadow shows up among the Planiacs, apparently to seize Cargill. Cargill escapes by seducing his jailer''s daughter, Lela Bouvey, and stealing an airship. He spends several months as a nomad, and begins to organize a political revolution among them, but is recaptured by the Shadows, and sent back in time to the same night he escaped. Ann Reece, the Tweener agent, again frees him, brings him to their city, where he is hypnotically programmed. He has no choice but to carry out his mission, to enter the Shadow city and shut off its defensive energy field, so that an air raid might destroy the Shadows. The Tweeners are those Planiacs who attempted to join the Shadows, but could not pass their tests. They plan to destroy the Shadows and force the Planiacs out of their nomadic existence and back to earthbound labor. Cargill has several dreams where is encounters beings from previous or future eons, which convinces him that the fate of the universe hangs in the success or failure of the Shadow-Tweener war. As a delaying tactic, he advises the Tweeners how to reorganize their air force to make a successful raid, he again seduces his jailer (which this time is Ann Reece), and he again begins to organize a political revolt among his captors, hoping an uprising of peacelovers among the Tweeners will stop the coming attack. Now firmly convinced that the Shadows are innocent, and that the planned Tweener attack is wrong, Cargill is unable to halt or even hinder the hypnotic programming that forces him to enter the Shadow City. The Shadows are superhumans able to travel through time, walk through walls, and revive the dead. Once in the city, Cargill is given the Shadow training, which consists of a single lecture hypnotically imprinted on his brain. Now armed with all their powers and abilities, Cargill emerges from the training session to witness a celebration of the election results: the Shadows elect their leaders retroactively through time, voting only after the leader''s term of office is up, and reporting it back through time to themselves on election day. To his surprise and dread, Cargill finds he is the new leader. The leader of the Shadows is Grannis; Cargill himself is Grannis. He spends the last chapter of the book traveling back through time to organize the various pointless conspiracies among the Tweeners and Planiacs which brought him here. While being killed and raised from the dead, he recalls that he and all other participants in the life-force of the cosmos created the universe as a game, and became bound to it, and to its tragedies, due to their psychological limitations: greed creates time, the desire for revenge creates death, and so on. Cargill-Grannis discovers he is innocent of the original death of Marie, but now he must arrange that death in order to prevent a time paradox which would otherwise destroy the universe.

The Universe Maker

A story about the narrator''s mother. It starts with a dream the narrator has in which her mother has not died. She then remembers a story that her mother used to tell her about a family she used to live with in the days before she was married. The story then changes to a third-person narrative about the Grieves family, specifically the two daughters, Flora and Ellie. This family is a rather odd one, as they live in a house with no electricity, no plumbing, and no oven. Other characters in the story note this as peculiar because the family is rather rich and is not religiously against these comforts. Flora is set up to marry a man named Robert. However Ellie is incredibly dependent on Flora and spends most of her time in the company of Robert and Flora. Flora wishes to remain chaste until her wedding with Robert. However, her father dies before the wedding can take place, so the wedding is postponed six months so that it will be over a year after the funeral of her father. Months later, Robert is getting married, not to Flora but to Ellie. The two are getting married because Ellie is pregnant. Flora takes this in stride and helps her sister prepare for the wedding. Ellie becomes somewhat of an invalid and remains bedridden or close to home for the rest of the story. She is constantly pregnant and miscarries or stillbirths all of her children. Flora and Robert have built up partitions in the house, so as to divide it in two to grant the married couple privacy. Flora cleans the entire house vigorously and caters to her sister''s every ridiculous whim. Ellie has become completely dependent on Flora and is not very grateful. Ellie becomes very awkward around guests and essentially alienates Flora from most of the community. Ellie eventually becomes very sick so a nurse is called for. Nurse Atkinson arrives at the house in a car, something that the Grieves have never used, and takes over the house. She demands expensive soaps and creams in an attempt to keep Ellie alive. The mother character, from whom the narrator has heard the story, takes an immediate disliking to the nurse after meeting her. She thinks that the nurse is using the creams and soaps on herself instead of Ellie. Eventually, Ellie dies from her illness. Nurse Atkinson, since she has no other immediate cases, continues to live in Flora''s house and complains constantly about the lack of luxuries. The townspeople assume that now that Ellie has passed, Flora and Robert will get married. However, it is Robert and Nurse Atkinson that end up getting married. The three live in the house together and the nurse makes many changes. She paints her half of the house, installs electricity and plumbing, and buys an oven. The mother character then moves away and gets married to her own husband. The only further development''s in Flora''s story comes from correspondence exchanged between Flora and the narrator''s mother. Flora is content with her life and is not outraged at the turn of events that cause her to lose Robert again or the butchering of her house. Eventually, Flora moves out of the house, if she was kicked out or voluntarily left is not clear, and has to work in a store to sustain herself. She has been forced to adapt modern ways and change her entire lifestyle. The narrator''s mother wanted to write a book about Flora''s life. She wishes to call it Maiden Lady. It would be a novel that would portray Flora as the poor, unfortunate, quaint soul that she is. The Narrator also wishes to write a book about Flora, but with her as a rather evil character, resistant to change and technology. The narrator wonders if she has seen Flora, run into her in a department store and wonders what she would have felt if she met her. The narrator then reminisces about her mother. She mentions how she felt cheated by the reprieve granted to her by the dream. She feels that this vision of her mother changes the "lump of love" that she has for her and that it feels like a "phantom pregnancy".

Friend of My Youth

Widower Ephraim Cabot abandons his New England farm to his three sons, who hate him but share his greed. Eben, the youngest and brightest sibling, feels the farm is his birthright, as it originally belonged to his mother. He buys out his half-brothers'' shares of the farm with money stolen from his father, and Peter and Simeon head off to California to seek their fortune. Later, Ephraim returns with a new wife, the beautiful and headstrong Abbie, who enters into an adulterous affair with Eben. Soon after, Abbie bears Eben''s child, but lets Ephraim believe that the child is his, in the hopes of securing her future with the farm. The proud Ephraim is oblivious as his neighbors openly mock him as a cuckold. Madly in love with Eben and fearful it would become an obstacle to their relationship, Abbie kills the infant. An enraged and distraught Eben turns Abbie over to the sheriff, but not before admitting to himself the depths of his love for her and thus confessing his own role in the infanticide.

Desire Under the Elms

Eldrinson Valdoria took over a year to heal from serious injuries inflicted on him by the Aristo Vitarex. He is happy to reconcile with his daughter Sauscony (Soz) whom he disowned for leaving home to become a Jagernaut. But he can''t do the same with his son Althor, who is lying near death in a military hospital after sacrificing himself to save billions of Skolian citizens during a battle with the Eubian Traders. As part of her military training, Soz is assigned to the battlecruiser Roca''s Pride, named in honor of her mother Roca Skolia. The training, however, turns out to be hard reality after her half-brother Imperator Kurj is nearly assassinated and falls into a coma. Traders simultaneously launch an attack against the planet Parthonia, seat of the Skolian government. This brings the psiberweb, the most important part of Skolian defence, to a collapse. Using an ancient device called Dyad Chair, Soz struggles to keep at least parts of the psiberweb intact. To repair psiberweb and save Skolia from Eubian invasion, Soz’s father Eldrinson has to join the Dyad, expanding it to a Triad with the risk that this could kill either him or one of the other Triad members. The book also shows the fates of other Ruby Dynasty family members: Soz''s brother Shannon dealing with the mystic Blue Dale archers, their mother Roca captured by Traders and Ruby Pharaoh''s husband Eldrin who leaves Parthonia on a ship with Skolian refugees while making a withdrawal from the addictive medicament phorine.

The Final Key

The story mainly takes place in two Ontario locales. In flashbacks, the main character, usually but not always called Alan (he appears to have been alphabetized rather than named, and will answer to any masculine name beginning with A), and his brothers (also alphabetized) grow up outside of the remote town of Kapuskasing. The novel opens with Alan''s purchase of a home in the Kensington Market neighborhood of modern-day Toronto. There are two main plotlines. Alan befriends Kurt, a thirtysomething punk who operates a dumpster-diving operation. Kurt uses computer components that he retrieves from the trash and turns them into functioning Wi-Fi access points. Kurt''s goal is to blanket the entire neighborhood with free and secure Internet access by attaching his access points to buildings with the permission of their owners. Kurt''s plan doesn''t really get off the ground until he forms a partnership with Alan, who puts a more professional face on the operation and sweet-talks many local owners into allowing the access points to use their space and a small amount of their electricity. The second plotline features fantasy elements. Unbeknownst to most of the other characters, Alan and his brothers are not quite human. Their father is a mountain and their mother is a washing machine. Alan''s eldest brother can see the future, his second-eldest is an island, his third-eldest is undead, and his three youngest brothers are a set of Russian nesting dolls. Alan is the most normal-seeming of his family. Outwardly, he looks human, but he heals at an incredible rate, and if part of him is cut off, it will grow back, and the cut off part can be made to form a new copy of him, much like an earthworm does. Another plot strand concerns Alan''s neighbours, a household of students and artists which includes Mimi, a troubled young woman who like Alan is not quite human. Born with wings on her back and no family history, she lives with her abusive boyfriend Krishna, a musician/bartender who can spot beings like Alan and his family, and hates them. Krishna amputates Mimi''s wings every three months; she stays with him because she believes he''s the only one willing and able to make her "normal."

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

Papa Chance is a former pitcher who has settled down with his wife in the mill town of Camas, Washington. They have six children. Everett Chance, the eldest, is a natural politician and powerful speaker whose passionate opposition to the Vietnam war creates much of the family tension in the book. He spends much time and effort pursuing a young Russian literature student named Natasha and finally wins her heart from draft exile in British Columbia by sending her an epic letter/novel. Everett does not have great natural athletic gifts but is a scrappy competitor. Second oldest, Peter Chance, is the intellectual brother who will study at Harvard and then in India. Though a natural athlete, Peter spends most of the book having renounced gifts of the body in his dogged pursuit of spiritual growth. After being kidnapped by con artists on an Indian train he finds enlightenment and he returns to the family in their hour of need. Kincaid Chance, the youngest brother, narrates the book yet is the member of the family we finally learn the least about. He has little or no athletic ability and serves as a mirror to reflect for us the colorful personalities that surround him. Irwin Chance, the third son, is a strapping athletic prodigy and beautiful soul. He is naturally enlightened, much in the vein of Alyosha Karamazov, and deeply religious. Yet, after conflicts with the Seventh-day Adventists in Camas, Irwin''s conscientious objector status is denied and he is sent to Vietnam. After witnessing an incident where his commanding officer mistreats a Vietnamese prisoner, Irwin has a mental breakdown and is committed to an Army mental institution in California. The family, suffering from the great divisions of the 1960s and Vietnam, pulls together to travel to California and bring Irwin home. The youngest children are twins, Beatrice and Winifred (Bet and Freddy). Much like Kincaid, they reflect their brothers and yet make important contributions to the family and the novel.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Sula

By Toni Morrison

Red Alert

By Peter George

Joshua Then and Now

By Mordecai Richler

Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz

By Ruth Plumly Thompson

The Slab Boys Trilogy

By John Byrne

The Half-Made World

By Felix Gilman

The Universe Maker

By A. E. van Vogt

Friend of My Youth

By Alice Munro

Desire Under the Elms

By Eugene O''Neill

The Final Key

By Catherine Asaro

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

By Cory Doctorow

The Brothers K

By David James Duncan