The Frogs is a novel that portrays rural America at a crucial turning point in history. Not since the Civil War were the roots of the American ideology so deeply divided. This story is a metaphor of the transition that invariably changed a nation. The brutal slaying of a popular President, the involvement in the unpopular conflict of Viet Nam, South East Asia, a drug and music culture which would rise up against the establishment, only to prove that nothing really changes. The little town of Liberty represents the tarnished grandiose dreams of the past, a doomed edifice that must be drowned in a baptism. Yet, destined also to a less than perfect resurrection. Like a ship sunk with all hands, it re-emerges a derelict flushed of past generations to ensnare a new host of dwellers. There are several stories within stories, and many savory characters apparitional in nature, each caught in a shadowy purgatory of his or her past, adding an ephemeral quality to the unfolding of events. The greatest shadow of all being the inevitability of death. Only Westbaily exist in the present. He alone walks by faith, only he sees and is guided by light. Yet, in the eyes of the world, Westbaily is the monster they all fear. Just as the surviving characters at the end of the story are waiting, so do we all. We are all frogs waiting for Westbaily to come. He comes sooner than we think. L. A. Espriux 10/30/2000
Author Biography: I am 48 years old, a graduate of UCLA, and a Veteran of the Viet Nam conflict. I served in Nam in 1970 and '71. I was a Marine Corps Sergeant with a special MOS of supply. I served with distinction, with pride, with honor. I survived. I graduated from UCLA in 1977 with a special degree in creative writing. I have since published a number of poems in the National Library of Poetry (www.poetry.com) and other poetry books and journals as well as some short stories. I presently live in a suburb community of Montreal, Quebec. This novel, The Frogs, has an important significance to me, as well as certain literary merit.
