Amazement - Gerry Huerth

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Résumé :
What happens to a child living in a conventional 1950's suburb who has a secret life that is anything but conventional? How does Francis create a future when the present is so dangerous? Not only has he been violently sexually traumatized as a child, but he is also attracted to men in an era when homosexuality is morally and legally condemned. He faces a life of contempt and violence. He becomes a spy, someone who watches people and even his own life from a secret distance. This novel follows the path that leads Francis from childhood, through adolescence in a Catholic seminary and finally into adulthood. There are no straight lines here and no easy answers. As Francis follows out this pathway with dead ends and detours he discovers almost by accident something real that wells up inside him that connects him to other people and life....

Biographie:
Gerry Huerth is a 74 year old person who has creatively responded to being an outsider and in that process has learned to be an effective advocate for people who face the challenges of working with systems that may not be responsive to their hopes and needs. Fifty years ago he was an early member of FREE, the first Gay and Lesbian college organization in this country.He also worked as an RN in many healthcare systems. These nursing experiences include psychiatric nursing, working with drug addicted mothers and infants in Harlem New York, volunteering for The Farm Workers Union in California, being on the board of a very early hospice in Maine, volunteering to do massage for people with AIDS, and collaborating to create a personal care service for people with mental illness living in the community. He also worked in a community college as an adjunct instructor teaching and empowering students who faced challenges to academic learning such as racism, poverty, violence and alternate learning styles....

Sommaire:
What happens to a child living in a conventional 1950's suburb who has a secret life that is anything but conventional? How does Francis create a future when the present is so dangerous? Not only has he been violently sexually traumatized as a child, but he is also attracted to men in an era when homosexuality is morally and legally condemned. He faces a life of contempt and violence. He becomes a spy, someone who watches people and even his own life from a secret distance. This novel follows the path that leads Francis from childhood, through adolescence in a Catholic seminary and finally into adulthood. There are no straight lines here and no easy answers. As Francis follows out this pathway with dead ends and detours he discovers almost by accident something real that wells up inside him that connects him to other people and life....