Author: James Dinwiddie

Publisher: Trafford Publishing

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 1412010845

Here are ten stories that impart unexpected insights from a unique and gifted writer. The surfing pilgrims who lose their paradise in the title story, The Johari Mirror; the rock-and-roll travelers in Dead Fish Eye; the clay-stained miners of The Jackass Hill Insane Asylum; all exhibit their mortal flaws, innocence, and conceits; in worlds where lives shift unpredictably, outcomes are mysterious. In Los Angeles, in the swinging sixties, a college student meets up with the Manson Family and confronts their evil. In Ohio, the Great Serpent Mound becomes metaphor for death and rebirth in the nuclear age. In 1950's Tennessee, a young boy is treetop witness to violence and Ethnic Evolution. A park ranger in Tears to the National Anthem recounts a momentous and strange mass-weeping on the White House lawn. These stories reveal the late 20th Century in exhilarating and profound transition; a life lived in the shadow of chaos. A successful Russian immigrant murders his family and commits suicide, echoing Crime and Punishment in the derangement of A Real Russian Tragedy. The Not So New Age pilgrims sing in dolphin and get a good dose of unmasking. Elvis Presley and Frederick Chopin return to remind us of the arousing possibilities of music, and of its tragic disappointment. The Johari Mirror presents the range and versatility, the artistry of language and ideas -- from tightly controlled to dazzlingly free, from mock-adolescent to piercing critic -- of a bold and illuminating writer. The voices and tales, fiction, memoir and commentary, all make the page sing in genuinely prophetic tones. Visit the author's web site at www.worldcat.com