Kirjahaku

At that time, 1966-1968, we were stressed. We required the outrageous and hyperbolic. So in a rare interlude, I wrote a tale - later to be enjoyed at a "reading" - a few stolen moments of laughter and joy. Recently, I reread these tales. I still laughe

In 1968 during the height of the Vietnam War, our hero, Dr. Reginald Houghton, a wealthy confident Harvard Yale trained physician with two years of internal medicine residency, was assigned by the US Army as a Senior Medical Advisor to the Korean Army. Upon arrival in Korea, he quickly grasped the contradictory tenets of neo-Confucian Korean versus American laws and customs; in a jam what do you do? Follow American or Korean laws or culture? Unlike most U.S. garrison soldiers Captain Houghton decided to have a "positive" experience beyond alcohol, drugs and "business ladies." The novel recounts his sometimes shocking, often humorous adventures with the Korean language, Korean karate, Korean officers, indigent patients, priceless jadeite carvings, and various ladies.

Who killed him? That is the question. Julian Augustus, Roman Emperor from 361-363 A. D., initiated reform of the Roman bureaucracy and state religion immediately on assuming office. After dismissing many civil servants, he eliminated Christianity as the state religion, reversing the policy of his two immediate predecessors. Instead, Julian proposed that all religions flourish freely. In parallel to his reforms, Julian attempted to destroy the Persian Empire after centuries of unsuccessful Roman efforts. This novel recounts Julian's reign through the eyes of Oribasius, Julian's trusted physician. At the climax of Julian's successful campaign in Persia, he was assassinated. Who killed Julian? Was it the same conspirators who silenced Apollo's Oracle at Delphi? Was it the Christian hierarchy, angry Roman military officers, laid-off eunuchs, humbled Persians, disaffected Jews, or unemployed Christian educators? They were all affected by Julian and had motive, means and opportunity.

In 717 AD, Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), appeared doomed. In the preceding eighty years, Muslim Arabs had captured much of North Africa and the Middle East, and were poised to take Constantinople. To save Byzantium, the senate asked a Roman General, Leo III, to become Emperor. Leo and his brilliant son Constantine V radically altered the Byzantine imperial system militarily and culturally. Leo developed a novel idea - that God was angry with the Byzantine Christians because they worshiped Christian icons, relics, and pagan idols, thus ignoring the Second Commandment. God would favor the Byzantines only if they destroyed their icons and purified Christianity. Leo's policy set in motion a century-long conflict between the iconoclast (icon breaker) emperors and the iconophiles (icon lovers). This religious struggle culminated in a final battle to define Byzantine Christianity and the control of the Empire. This novel recounts who won, why and how.