An Essay on Healing

About the Book

The story opens with two pages of verse, which introduce the main character, Alan Brockton, and establish the theme of healing. Brockton is in his sixties, nearing retirement. He trips while jogging, falls, and breaks an arm. While recovering at home his self-pity and self-blame drove away friends and associates. To overcome his bad attitude and promote healing, he recalls when he was in his twenties in WWII. He had been grievously injured by a German land mine in France which left him blind in one eye and with a crippled arm and leg. Brockton's memories re-enact the story of his difficult re-hab and healing.
A sub-plot which had complicated young Alan's recovery at that time, was the concurrent death of J.J., his older brother, in the war with Japan. Alan's anger and resentment at J.J's death left him unable to grieve.
Alan's healing from his injuries and his brother's death provides the conflict and drama of the book. His fullest knowledge of healing is learned through and shared with a young lady also wounded emotionally by the war. Yuki Takatori is a Japanese-American, U.S. citizen, who spent the entire war locked inside a U.S. detention camp. Alan and Yuki meet in college. Their relations begin with a mutual prejudice. Alan's was in reaction to Yuki's ethnic and racial characteristics, which he identified with the enemy that killed his brother. Yuki's distrust was in response to Alan's initial antagonism. Their relationship progresses to shared respect, friendship, and intimacy. In this process they healed themselves and each other.

About the Author

I was born 26 April 1923 in New Orleans, La, where I completed a Catholic grammar, and a public high school. In October, 1942, during WWII, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy.
In September 1944 I was a Radio Operator on a small, Navy, working ship stationed in the sea port, harbor city of Cherbourg, France. One autumn afternoon in Cherbourg I was a passenger in an Army truck which detonated a German land mine. I suffered injuries like Alan Brockton's in An Essay on Healing. Post war, I attended Columbia U., School of General Studies, NYC, NY, graduating cum laude Feb 1950, with majors in English Lit and Creative Writing.
In the early 1950s I wrote, Innocence Was a Lion, my first novel, handled by the literary agency of Ms. Mavis MacIntosh. Two publishers made identical offers to publish it within a year if I produced a second acceptable MS. I failed at that and moved to Texas to accept a civilian job with the Air Force as a Management Analyst. In the 1970s, I resumed writing as a hobby. I have a large quantity completed of, Different Ways of Seeing the River, a picaresque novel set in New Orleans about the fictional Brockton family, primarily Alan and his father. The chapters are entities, i.e., may stand alone as short stories. In 1985 I retired as a Senior Management Analyst with 30 years tenure.
I continue to solicit representation by an author's agency for the publication of my work, especially prose fiction. In addition to its merit, my work should gain marketability through my age, 77. In this era of increasing life spans, my work might gain readership among seniors as the product of a contemporary "Grandpa Moses," in the medium of literature. The comparison here is to the earlier, highly successful, "Grandma Moses," in graphic arts.
As Essay on Healing's portrayal of Yuki's incarceration in a U.S. prison camp during WWII is based on the actual history of those years. The story might well be considered as the basis for a film, big screen or tv.
I am a Life Member of Disabled American Veterans, DAV.