Kirjahaku

"The Enlisted Men's Club" is the first of a trilogy of stories about military life by the late Gary Reilly, based on his experiences in Vietnam. Private Palmer is stationed at San Francisco's army base at The Presidio, awaiting orders. He's trying to find his place in the ranks. And trying to avoid work. While he's been trained as a Military Policeman, he has no idea what's next. Palmer keeps a low profile by day and seeks escape in the bars at night. The trick to survival, he decides, is not to care about anything during his time in the Army. To his surprise, that's the most difficult challenge of all.

All he wanted to do that day was drive into town to look for a job. But when Pete Larkey turns the ignition key, his car won't start. He decides to walk to town. He'll have a morning beer at the Lemon Tree Lounge and buy a new battery for his car. He refuses to feel victimized. At least, he tries. But inside the bar is "the last man on earth" that Pete Larkey wants to see. A guy named Morton will ask a few questions that will change the course of Pete Larkey's life in a deep, dark way. There's a stolen car, a hit-and-run accident, mistaken identity, a body in his bathroom and a deadly encounter with a condescending con man named Benny.Pete Larkey knows he's not a perfect fit for the squeaky-clean town of Crestmoor. "Everything in Crestmoor is clean and tidy," he thinks, "except the inner lives of people like me." This innocent trip to fix his car will prove that point beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Carl Draco is the dead-calm center of a maelstrom of violence.The Legend of Carl Draco tells the story of a quietly fearless young man whose existence is consumed in ruthlessly dispatching nameless enemies who dog his every move. He doesn't know--or care to know--who these men are, but one thing is clear: they share the supernatural abilities Carl has possessed since he was orphaned as a small boy.After crossing paths with a reclusive professor who took an interest in him twenty years earlier, Draco decides to question his pursuers on a "vexing night" that changes everything.Throwing off his weary resignation, Draco sets out from California to confront his fate deep in the Appalachian Mountains where he was born. In this unusual town not found on any modern maps, a powerful foe has been pulling the strings of Draco's life.When his personal quest threatens to press him into the role of reluctant hero, Draco is constrained to live up to the legend that preceded him in this odd locale. But does he really want to shoulder another burden?Gary Reilly's latest antihero must reconcile his kindhearted tendencies with his fundamental love of solitude in this thoroughly entertaining contemporary folktale.

In Varmint Rumble, the final installment of The Asphalt Warrior series, we pick up with cabbie Brendan Murphy--better known as "Murph"--right where he usually leaves off: minding his own business and heading home to his crow's nest in anticipation of beer, burgers, and his beloved Gilligan's Island.But a broken body lying in the street derails his plans and draws Murph into the shady world of Denver's most notorious outlaw biker gang: The Varmints.All's well that ends well, as Murph acquits himself admirably and is deemed "good people" by the gang's leader, Spinelli. But Murph's newfound status with The Varmints brings a troubled woman into his taxicab . . . and inevitably Murph violates his supreme motto to never get involved in the lives of his fares.A string of misadventures ensues. Murph goes on the lam. Longtime mentor Big Al makes an extraordinary cameo. And Murph overthinks everything, waxing philosophical about life, death, and facing the music. Memento mori, Murph.

Meet Jeremy Bannister. His is a humble, simply told coming-of-age tale that spans the terribly serious and comically trivial decades of the Vietnam and disco eras, respectively. The singular ambition of Jeremy's life is to become a "big-shot" novelist. As an English major still hoping to emulate the obscure artistry of James Joyce, he clearly has no earthly notion of how to achieve his goal. Adrift in a "coral reef" of failed writer friends, Jeremy's youthful trials are bookended by an acerbic but influential college roommate and an incredibly matter-of-fact girlfriend. Thus thirty-year-old unpublished Jeremy arrives at the realization that he is destined to become fifty-year-old unpublished Jeremy if he doesn't stop straightening up his living room and finish writing at least one novel.Pushcart Prize-winner Gary Reilly's latest offering is a Bannisterian bildungsroman executed in an intriguing economical format of precisely twenty-eight lines per chapter.

Charley Quinn teaches creative writing at a free university in Denver. His specialty is plotting. He doesn't care for lyricism or poetry in the prose cranked out by his students, much to their chagrin. Charley has rules about writing and he has rules about his life. But a new female student is about to challenge everything he thinks he knows. Her name is Linda Hathaway. Her eyes glisten when she smiles. Charley is transfixed. When Charley discovers that Linda is only taking the class for fun, and not to learn how to write, the dynamic between teacher and student shifts. However, getting an accurate fix on what Linda really wants is an ongoing challenge. But Charley is no less beguiled. Charley is keenly aware of the unpredictability of bad decisions, but he can't resist Linda's mysterious allure. He may think he knows the rules for writing. He might think he knows what women want. He thinks he understands the "awful truths" about male and female desire. But Charley is playing a whole new game. And it might turn dark. The Paradise that Lurks in Female Smiles is the late Gary Reilly's 16th novel, all published posthumously.