Last Light

About the Book

Last Light is a novel about renewal of men and women in their sixties and late fifties who are joined together in an Ulyssean quest for physical and spiritual rejuvenation. The setting is the Canadian Armed Forces, in a fictional response to charges of age discrimination directed at the Forces' policy on mandatory retirement. Techniques for reversing the bioligical clock are applied to the members of a new infantry unit: the Grey Berets. The keys to renewal, however, are to be found ultimately in strong leadership, the mysteries of mind-body connection and the strength of the human spirit.

The novel draws mystical parallels between the events that take place in this story and the poem Ulysses, by Tennyson, as well as Dante's Inferno, on which the poem is based. It examines stereotypes on aging, leadership and courage by looking at them upside down. Elders go into combat as their children watch. The leadership of powerful, poll-driven politicians is challenged by a man guided only by his moral compass. Courage is expressed in restraint and self-sacrifice rather than the action-hero, guts-and-glory image so ingrained in the North American consciousness.

About the Author

Gerald Bethell was born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan and is a graduate of the Royal Military College and the University of Saskatchewan. Following his service as an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, he worked for four years as the editor of business publications in Toronto and Western Canada. After joining the public service, he became advertising manager for the Canadian Government Office of Tourism. He later moved to the federal Treasury Board, where he participated in the development of access to information and privacy legislation. For five years he served as senior executive responsible for developing and administering government information policy in such areas as access to information, privacy, security and communications. He took early retirement from the public service and is now pursuing his long-term interest in writing fiction. He and his wife, Vivian, live on the shores of Lake Ontario in Prince Edward County, near Picton.