The Good Joe

Welcome to Lake Oswego, Oregon. The year is 1968 and, while the world is spinning off its axis, location and cash nicely insulate the town and Lake Oswego Junior High School. The pervasive and all-important cliques maneuver for dominance and rumble using their newly discovered weapons of gossip and innuendo. Protagonist Alec Lowery observes them, "Like I'm Jane frigging Goodall," and quickly comes to the conclusion that first casualty of junior high is the truth. Living in a "Strategic Hamlet" such as Lake Oswego doesn't fend off everything. When a great equalizer such as cancer strikes home, the Lowery clan is swift to get their Irish up-circle the wagons-the station wagons-and fight the good fight.

Likes to take long walks off short docks.