Faustus In Pasquack

About the Book

To avoid the humiliation and dishonor of discovery of a brief affair with a precocious nymphet Mayor Eagan of the small bedroom community of Pasquack was forced into an alliance with Provenzone (Satan), a colorful character of Sicilian ancestry who viewed sexual dalliances as a mark of one's manliness rather than one or morality. This alliance of differing cultures traps Eagan into an obligation which, according to Provenzone's set of values is a requirement of Sicilian honor but to Eagan's Catholic upbringing, is unacceptable. In the context of his societal mores, however, he gives serious thought to transgress even this hallowed code because he would rather be accused of murder than be tainted by the crime of ruining the morals of a minor - who also happens to be the classmate of his daughter. It is a psycho-drama of mystery and suspense tinged with humor and pathos. The author presents a believable story of saints and sinners in an environment rich with local color of the post war suburbia with its American angst about sexual doings outside the master bedroom, to bring the tale to a most surprising climax.

About the Author

B.B. Rotmil was born in Strasbourg Alsace Lorraine, in France on December 1926 from German/Polish Jewish parents. At the age of seven the family moved to Metz and on to Paris and then, at age 12 in 1937 to Vienna shortly before the Anschluss and Chrystallnacht. The father was an art broker who dealt with various clienteles in Paris, Vienna and Brussels. The family was caught in the horrors of the Nazi abominations and World War II. He and his younger brother were the only survivors of the family of five and, after the war, Bernard settled in and around Westchester and Rockland Counties, in New York, got his degree from NYU served in the US Army Corp of Engineers Technical Intelligence in Europe 1953-54 and joined IBM in 1957 from whence he retired after thirty years. He wrote several novels of which PASQUACK is the first to be published. He has extensive collections of essays and poetry and did translations of the post war German poet, Paul Celan. Some of his work has been published on his website www.bernardrotmil.com. He is also the editor and publisher of a Newsletter dedicated to the Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust residing in and around Rockland County. Bernard has also produced several noteworthy sculptures. Laying aside his tumultuous childhood and teenage years he prefers to write about his beloved country of America and in particular the lower Hudson Valley region and the New York metropolitan area. His characters are composites of friends he knew and are drawn from his experience as a corporate type, living and raising children in a bedroom community by the Hudson. In no way are these characters to be construed as representing real live people in the mode of Thomas Wolfe's pseudo-autobiographies. His stories are mysteries and suspense but they are also social commentaries which can be read at several levels but with all the pathos and ironies inherent in the human condition. His ultimate aim is simply that the reader enjoys his work and after reading the last chapter he closes and replaces the book on his bookshelf feeling he got his money's worth.