“For what? Like there has to be a what! Would you say I died in vain, died for the thrill?” Her arms flailed. “If I lose my balance, even for a second - a second - I could die!” Ignoring our pleas, her forehead etched with concentration, she continued. Moments earlier, she danced across a warped balance beam forty feet above the river. Swimming through the train’s blast, she reminded me of a salmon - always heading upstream. Just great!” Her laugh pierced the freight’s roar. “Feel it?” she shrieked, her hair dancing behind her.

“Faster! Faster!” Her voice swirled in the wind. Laugh, cry, and blush as James recounts events of a late twentieth century American life. Steve Lucas, a mortician’s son, who despite bizarre obsessions, stands by James during his most challenging times. Diane, Shannie’s mother, a college professor dispels the notion of tweed jackets and elbow patches.

Russell, an aging blind African-American, guards a horrifying secret behind a cloud of cigar smoke. Count, the cemetery caretaker’s son, helps James navigate the minefields of adolescence until destiny is met in Desert Storm. Shannie, who among other things, introduces him to the sport of dodging freight trains. Meet the people that shaped James’s life. This simple act triggers powerful memories. Reenacting a childhood ritual, he places a mud pie upon a grave. On the cusp of the new millennium, James fulfills a promise. From their first encounter as teenagers until Shannie’s death, experience the twists, turns and enthralling characters that populate Cemetery Street. A view Shannie Ortolan - James’s longtime friend, sometimes lover, and full-time obsession - wouldn’t argue. “In a world of presumptuous people, irony is alive and well,” concludes James Morrison, the narrator of this touching coming of age novel. Laugh, cry and blush with James Morrison as he recalls the trials, tribulations, and tragedies growing up on Cemetery Street.

Shangri-La Trailer Park by John Zunski