Oregon
Literary
Review
Vol. 2, No. 2

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Bill Ransom SCRAPBOOK Excerpts from a novel-in-progress The novel's working title is Scrapbook, told by our narrator, Mike, who struggles to come to terms with his violent father, a WWII vet with a secret past. When "Trillium" takes place Mike's in grade school, shortly after his parents' divorce, which was triggered when he caught his father with another woman. Actually, the catching led to a beating that triggered the divorce. This is the first time he's seen his father since the beating. In "Smoking Proverbs," Mike's a young adult who fights his own battles with alcohol and violence, and he joins the fire department "to wear the white hat for a change." He becomes a rescue paramedic as well. He works full-time out of a county hospital and trains volunteers, which leads him to train rescue personnel in Latin America, as well. "Smoking Proverbs" finds Mike in Belize working as the expedition medic for an archeologist, shortly after a traumatic experience in the Guatemalan civil war. He was coming unravelled after his combat experience and took a leave of absence for two months to take an easy job in Belize. --B.R. From the novel: Trillium Smoking Proverbs