Road for a Lost Soul
Road for a Lost Soul
A Novel by Gerry Boylan
I stood on the highway poised like a matador. One foot touched the solid white line that separated the highway from the road’s shoulder, my arm and thumb stretched outward with a purpose, both beckoning and taunting the cars as they flew past.
In 1973, Luke Moore is twenty-years old and a survivor of a family lain to ruins by fire and murder. His escape is cross country hitch-hiking on the 1500 miles of I-75 between Sault St. Marie in northern Michigan and the Everglades of Florida, where he finds a mélange of characters that help guide him on a mission seeking reconciliation and redemption
Road for a Lost Soul is a 1970’s coming-of-age novel wound around a road story. As Luke hitch-hikes away from his troubled past he hurtles into the lost-and-found lives of the characters he meets on and off the highway. And does he meet characters! On the menu are giant cops, twin nuns in a Checker cab, gun-toting drug dealers, predators, an ex-police chief, lonesome salesmen and vintage hippies; a brew of scary, caring and ethereal lost souls in their own right. Some are guides for his mission, while others embody the demons and malevolence of his past. His adventures lead to a violent climax that brings the confluence of events and characters of Luke’s story into a surprising denouement.
Luke finds road life irresistible because he can re-invent himself with every new ride as he rummages to replace all he has lost. He invents new names and personas for every ride. He’s Mortimer Molesky, Pierre Ouellette and William Fitwilly among others. And while the road is Luke’s escape, he always finds his way back home as his story intertwines with his band of friends and what remains of his family. They are his safe harbor, but share the turbulence of the mad dash to adulthood.
The chapters alternate with a now 50 year-old Luke Moore retracing his 1-75 adventures with his wife as they drive their only child to her first year at college. The reformed middle-aged Luke provides the same contrast today’s baby-boomers face as they square their own wild youth as they watch their own children struggle and lurch toward becoming young adults. I’m one of those millions of middle aged baby boomers who lived and survived the turbulent post-1960’s. I sinned spectacularly as I hitchhiked over 100,000 miles in the early 1970’s, before finally finding my feet. Like my contemporaries, I struggle between wanting to shield my children from my past, but also warn them about the devils that lurk out there in the world! In this novel, readers can retrace the struggle of their youth and their era and compare notes with Luke on how to handle the present.
As the Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test, by Tom Wolfe, presents the beginnings of the anything-goes-drug culture, Lost Soul illustrates what happened next, when drugs were widely available, used and abused by initiates not ready for the consequences, but making it through to other side because they didn’t have guidebook.
As the story Stand By Me, by Stephen King, captures the joy and angst of the boyhood friendships in the 1950’s, Lost Soul captures wildness and exuberance of being a young adult in the early 1970’s and the cost of pushing too much, to too fast, too soon.
I’m not Stephen King or Tom Wolfe, even in my own imagination. A more egalitarian comparison might be On the Road meets That 70’s Show. For baby boomers that have left the 70’s behind, Lost Soul is a white-knuckle flight back to who we were and a poignant reflection on the family men and women we’ve become.
Gerry,
I have just begin to read these, starting with Humor (of course). I love the Buns Up story. It does remind me that our Heavenly Father does have one and often “laughs” with me, instead of “at me”. You have a great command of the English language, but you make the reading enjoyable (even when it is a [very] long story). I look forward to reading the novel and will continue to come out here daily to “read and catch up” on the daily happenings with the rest of my blogger friends. Good luck with your aspirations.
Joyce
Atta boy- you loquacious bastard
Hi Gerry,
In my archives I have a letter you wrote to me in the ’70s… during your time in D.C. In it you mentioned a restroom encounter you had with Nelson Rockefeller. Now - I’m not implying that there was anything Larry Craig like in that incident, but I just thought you should know I’m holding the letter for the day you start to hawk your book on Oprah.
Austin
Gerry Boylan is a very brave man. . . .
Although most of my dealings were with your brother Larry, I did notice a certain E.H. Shakelton about you. That “Je ne sais quoi” aura around men on the frontlines of adventure. Your brother may have leaned a bit toward Kerouac, or even Hunter S. Thompson (God help us), but you always kept an eye on him, taking notes along the way, and remembering how to use words like “dénouement” in a sentence.
Well, I’ve prattled on enough, but good luck, and if you should ever put a pen to ‘Losing GB2 in Times Square’, or ‘The Borgman Hill Rumble’, well, I’ll certainly be there/here to read it. Hi to Larry, wherever he may be, and I’ll get that train northbound …as soon as I can.
Fictionality Lives On,
…Kent Clark
, Yea, and a vote for the Grass Lake Festival, and maybe Eastown Theater.
Suberu,
Well, thank you Joyce! If I can make you laugh, that’s a very good sign….you may enjoy the new business humor section. gerry
Austin, How much do you want for those archives? I’ll double my offer if there are pictures involved! And I have no personal knowledge of awide stance!
I have a picture you or Jim Purtell must have taken as you dropped me and Jimmy Colombo off in West Yellowstone. It’s in a prominent place on my writing desk That trip is truly worthy of a story….in fact part of it is in the Lost Souls novel….yep, who would have figured you and Jim would find us broke, cold and hopeless, 1000 miles from home standing on the Trans Canadadian Highway outside Regina, Saskatchewan, desperate for a ride to anywhere. It was a road miracle! At least for Jimmy and me!
To Kent Clark: Is it ethical to identify an anonymous poster? Maybe not directly, but this commenter was involved in the Mardi Gras caper….we hitch-hiked to New Orleans, spent three days either broadening our horizons or nearly killing ourselves…I can’t remember which….before we met up with Mike Moore and crew in the Phys-tester car, yet another crazy story…..ah, the material is nearly endless!
Dodger,
Hey….there is a new story posted with a short visit to the Eastown Theatre….it’s in the humor section…Scar Story III,Smoke….
Regarding Grass Lake…..it was Goose Lake, right?And I had to work the weekend shift at the Bi-Lo Supermarket….and missed it all! Let’s hear it from the Goose Lakers!
Hi Jerry,
Just now getting around to reading your website. Very good. Your son derserves a raise. Welcome to the Desperate for an Agent Club. However, with the bookstores and publishing houses going out of business, agents may also become dinosaurs. But writers: never!
Best success in 2009,
Iris
“Did you at least rinse the drinking glass?” Would have been my first thought as a parent of teenage sons- Not Really anonymous- just dangerous -Jimmy Elvis,jpt
Goose Lake, yes, it was …1970.
Around the clock for days can be exhausting, but there were many highlights, if only I could remember any of them.
At least an attempt was made to perpetuate the myths and legendary tales of Woodstock.
Be well. do good. Et mulligan vobiscum.
- dodger
Gerry,
Your “voice” is so readable — and I’m sure everyone’s going to enjoy your novel. Looking forward to hearing how the book comes together. It’s an exciting journey! — Cindy
GB- What gives? I have written 2 annonymous blog comments on stories and they have yet to appear, except for the “loquacious bastardard” comment. Is the lack of my posting of my comments a result of retribution for insulting you? I do admit that they were in poor taste, and irreverent as ’shit’, but what the hell???
What am I? Chopped liver or something??
Je
I envy you,and i admire your artile very much.
Good stuff bro…keep on writing!
I’ve been listening to Gerry Boylan stories since he started showing up unannounced on my doorstep during the 70s. There MAY be too much of a good thing, but not yet.
On his grave: Gerry Boylan, Raconteur. There will be a little lending library of recorded stories, and headphones. Til then, enjoy an authentic American voice.
I’ve been listening to Gerry Boylan stories since he started showing up unannounced on my doorstep during the 70s. There MAY be too much of a good thing, but not yet.
On his grave: Gerry Boylan, Raconteur. There will be a little lending library of recorded stories, and headphones. Til then, enjoy an authentic American voice.