Bøger af Alan Robert Proctor

Bruce Proctor's journey was a harrowing one - from top secret Pentagon war-policy insider to American deserter. Interpreting reconnaissance photos taken over Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, he concluded that the conflict was immoral, misguided and deceptive. He suddenly quit the Defense Intelligence Agency (which caused a furor) and joined the Air National Guard to avoid conscription. But his unit was activated, and within the year Bruce was AWOL in Sweden. This hybrid memoir is told in three narrative voices: letters from and to Bruce during 1968 - 1972, his reminiscences 40 years later and two years before his death, and his brother, Alan's, reflections in 2014. Although he tried, Bruce never learned the language, necessary for a decent job. His letters and later recollections highlight the struggle: impoverishment; common laborer; counselor for disturbed children; taxi driver. He mastered yoga, yet was also mastered by drugs and alcohol. After four years of effort in a foreign culture, Bruce decided, "I must get out of here," and emigrated to Canada. As the Poet Laureate of Missouri wrote, "It's an account of...sustained heroism." Compiled and edited with reflections by Alan Robert Proctor

"In Adirondack Summer, 1969, Alan Proctor has fashioned a marvelous world that invokes nostalgia and realism (and even magical realism) to superb effect. It's a poignant, playful, intensely imagined book, written with grace and good humor and the kind of sentences all writers ache to produce. Highly recommended, whether you went to summer camp or not." -Brian Shawver, author of Aftermath and The Language of Fiction. "I'm a big believer in good first lines to novels, and Alan Proctor grabs you from the first sentence." -Frank Higgins, playwright, author of Black Pearl Sings. "This jewel of a novel ... reminds readers of the vulnerability and gifts of summer .... I fell right into the characters, the setting and the drama ...." -Denise Low, 2007-2009 Poet Laureate of Kansas, author of Melange Block and Jackalope. "Alan Proctor's Adirondack Summer, 1969, is a meditation on grief and loss, told with the verve of a John Irving novel. Proctor's vivid sense of place makes the novel's setting-an arts camp in the Adirondacks-a character in its own right. His cast, led by Deidre and Myron Cravitz, weave a gorgeous, often comic, tapestry of their delusions, loves, and dreams. Any reader booking a cabin at Camp Cravitz should prepare to be moved and entertained." -Whitney Terrell, author of The Good Lieutenant.