Vets

by John Robert McFarland

Overview

Joe Kirk lost a leg. Lonnie Blifield lost his eyes. Victoria Roundtree lost her skin. "Zan" Zander lost his mind. Four homeless and hopeless Iraqistan Vets who accidentally end up living together on an old school bus. With nowhere to go, and nothing else to do, they lurch from one VAMC to another, getting no help because, like the thousands of other Iraqistan Vets who are homeless, unemployed, and suicidal, they do not trust the system and refuse to "come inside." After another fruitless stop, at the VAMC in Iron Mountain, Michigan, a doctor is found dead, and the Vets are accused of his murder. Distrustful, strangers to America, to each other, and even to themselves, they must become a unit to learn who really murdered the doctor, so that they can stay free. In doing so, they uncover far more, about themselves and about their country, than they dared even to imagine...

Product Details

BN ID:	2940163164431
Publisher:	Black Opal Books
Publication date:	08/13/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	381 KB

About the Author

John Robert McFarland’s stories, articles, poems, essays, comic strip gags, scripts, reviews, and columns have appeared in newspapers, magazines, radio shows, web sites, anthologies, encyclopedias, dictionaries, hardback, audio, paperback, Czech, and Japanese. He wrote for Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion radio show and for Bob Thaves’ Frank & Ernest comic strip, Scribners’ Dictionary of American History and Scribners’ American Lives, plus the famous Frosty and the Babe poem for the celebration at Hofstra University of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Babe Ruth.

His first oncologist said he would be dead “in a year or two.” That was twenty years ago. Instead of dying he had in-body experiences. You can read about it in NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them (AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, plus Czech and Japanese editions). Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the founder of CanSurmount, called it “The best book by a cancer patient, for a cancer patient, ever.”

McFarland plays third base and charges every grounder [bad arm]. He is equally adept at going left or into foul territory. He has earned several graduate degrees but is most proud of his honorary contract with the Cincinnati Reds.

Editorial Reviews

This is a great book. It's sad, funny, poignant, and heart-warming--sometimes all on the same page. It's a story anyone who's ever been a vet or known a vet will definitely relate to.

https://www.blackopalbooks.com - Taylor Jones

Vets is extremely well written. McFarland has a way with words that makes reading the book a joy. It's the funniest, saddest, most heart-breaking and heart-warming book I've read in ages. This is one you will want to keep around to read over and over again, just for the sheer pleasure of it. Bravo, McFarland. Well done.

https://www.blackopalbooks.com - Regan Murphy