Exiles

In an historic move American president Herbert Hoover sends army troops to gun down thousands of impoverished veterans and their families marching on Washington to claim a promised bonus.  It’s 1932, the worst days of the Depression.  Millions of Americans are hungry; worst off are the veterans of World War I.  The troops kill a few veterans, injure many, then burn the shanties in which they have been living with their displaced families. The veterans and their families are driven away from the capitol.  Most have nowhere to go.

The leader of the veterans, Medal of Honor winner George William Blair, is slashed by a saber wielded by the man whose life he saved in 1918 in the death-trap trenches of France.

“Exiles: a curveball called destiny,”tracks the lingering effects of that fateful day on several generations of the family of George Blair, and the lives of many others, especially the veterans of that “war to end all wars.”  

The novel follows the life of Billy Blair, youngest child of the World War I hero, whose father’s past has been hidden from him.  As a youth Billy Blair is surrounded by failure and low expectations.  When he unexpectedly achieves great success in business as an adult, he finds that success uncomfortable.  He longs, instead, for a long-ago life he imagines he enjoyed, but never really lived.

When Billy Blair learns of his father’s heroism, he strives to find a way to avenge the betrayal of his father.  But, compromised by his important position as president of a computer company, he seeks, then finds, an unusual solution to his dilemma.  In doing so, he convinces himself there will always be war as generation after generation is infected by an always fatal, contagious disease.  He calls it “disease of war.”  He applies the term to victims — and perpetrators, those who profit from war.

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