The Men of Jasper Hill — A. Scott Boddie

The Men of Jasper Hill A Novel in Seven Stories Six men living an embittered existence transmute to living out loud. What if you had different parents, born into a different family with different circumstances? What if you lived in a different city with different friends? What would your life be like? Have you wished for a different mother or father? Wished you were someone else to escape the pain, if only for one day? Does your family and friends accept you where you are standing today? The Men of Jasper Hill is a family. Ride along as strangers, from a variety of different social and economical situations, befriend, belittle, envenom, and live amidst each other in loving relationships. The Men of Jasper Hill tackles the urban themes of encroachment, friendship, execrable villainy, fierce loyalty, and generic families. Every character adds a layer of intrigue to personal, cinematic, expressive, and grim grace. Excerpt The Men of Jasper Hill In accents of menace and wrath; the Saviour house stood as a beacon for the perfect American family. Night after night the skies were wine-blue and bubbling with stars. Inside the house, behind closed doors the spirit was palpitating with rage and wounded sensibility. Every morning celebrated the ecstasy and festival of summer, and at dusk, deep within the house, yellowed-eyed demons prowled. The night Peter returned was a night of little ease, and every night after became a nightmare. Jeff Saviour was emancipated in 1969. The summer of Jeff--seven years old. 184 Brewster Place, Glen Clove, New York City, was incapable of verity. The calls were coming from inside the house. Life was slow to reveal, and it seemed intolerably tragic. Everyone in the family was aware of it. Father Saviour only cared about his millions, and mother Saviour never stayed sober after four-thirty. Summer was in full swing, and the heat was rising. Brewster street, once a lonely, empty playground, was now brimming with children. How do you paint a true picture with untrue words? How do you describe the emotions, and conflicts that are mixed with tragic intensity, when you wish it would go away? Sometimes the Universe makes mistakes. Sometimes you have to getaway, somewhere you can become the man that you were meant to be. It is called a dream. A dream of a better life, with real family made of friends. Happiness can be real, not like a thirty-minute sitcom, or a radio show, with exception to radio play of Skyline Pigeon, by Elton John, if you simply dream big. To survive, ill-bred insolence became the weapon of choice. Why care how they feel? They were aware of everything and did nothing.