Can't find my Way Home
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
The story is woven around the protagonist, Lee Roy Jacks and his two close friends, Frank Ehrlanger and Laura Jarrett.
In the 1960's Lee Roy spends several years in the Haight Asbury section of San Francisco before being drafted into the Army. He is sent to Vietnam where he saves a young girl from rape and murder by killing a sergeant and lieutenant. His crime is undetected and in 1970 he is discharged and drifts into Syracuse, New York where is goes to work for Frank Ehrlanger, a gruff but kindhearted retired cop who runs a furniture moving business.
He meets and falls in love with Laura Jarrett, a beautiful black woman. They have a passionate affair, but Laura has been secretly married to anti-war fugitive, Stormy Thomas. Returning to Syracuse, Stormy persuades confused Laura to run away with him to Canada and later Africa.
Heartbroken over Laura's disappearance, Lee Roy goes on a drinking rampage ending in a fight with Frank. Lee Roy returns to his home in Buffalo and works for a black drug dealer, but the wanderlust carries him to Texas, Colorado and Santa Barbara, California where he become a crack addict. In Rehab he becomes romantically involved with a Mary Frances.
Frank Ehrlanger has an affair with a younger woman, Kixie, but it sours and he becomes a drunken wastrel.
Laura and her abusive husband Storm, leave Canada for Africa. Hoping to patch up her marriage, she has a son, Kunta Kinte. Black politics force them to leave for California, and then Arizona where Laura leaves her cruel husband with Kunta Kinte. Mother and son return to Syracuse where she finds her mother in very poor health.
In 1990 Laura sees Lee Roy and they consider getting together, but Laura falls in love with Frank Ehrlanger, moves in and has his baby. Spurned by Laura's rejection, Lee Roy sobers up after a drunken bender and returns to California and Mary Francis, who has just delivered his child.
Frank is murdered by jealous Stormy, who dies of AIDs. Years later in 2030, Lee Roy dies at 80, shocking the assembled family with his last word - Laura.
(670 pages)
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
This novel begins in 1945, and ends 85 years later, in 2030. It deals with the lives of three main characters, whose separate lives intersect and then go in different directions and then, many years later, intersect again.
Although the story mainly deals with their friendship, the historical backgrounds include World War II, the Vietnam War, and race riots of the sixties. The settings include Germany, Vietnam, Buffalo and Syracuse, New York, Canada, Africa, California and Arizona. The three main characters are Frank, a gentle natured retired policeman; Laura, a beautiful but confused black woman; and Lee Roy, a bitter, fiery hippie vagabond.
About the Author
John Reid was born in Rochester, New York in 1947. He spent three years in the U.S. Army, including a one-year tour of Vietnam.
He has been living in Florida since 1974, and went to college in Gainesville, Florida. He has worked as a schoolteacher in Ft. Myers and presently works as a market research consultant.