Description
On sale now @ $ .99. A family saga, spanning the years from World War II through the Vietnam
War and after, recounting the unseen wounds war inflicts on two
generations of a family. With a raw authenticity stripped of self-pity
and a poet's eye for lyrical detail, Betty recounts her wartime romance
with Army Air Corps Sergeant Mitch Lanier, raised in a Catholic
orphanage, and a combat veteran; their rocky marriage; the births of a
son and daughter and Mitch’s gradual spiral from a man who could build
or fix anything into a schizophrenic, obsessed with the Virgin Mary and
extra-terrestrial flight. They raise their family in rural Idaho and
Betty relies on her inner life – her love of the land – to give her the
courage to fulfill her marriage vows and to protect her family. From her
life of subservience to that of the family’s bread-winner, temptation,
fear and love give a razor’s edge to a sometime funny, often difficult
life. It is also the story of the conflicting relationship between
mother and daughter Torie, and Betty’s pride and fears for son, Michael,
who becomes a combat infantry lieutenant in Vietnam. The author drew
on her observations of her father’s mental illness to give this novel
authenticity.