Struggles of a Country Boy

About the Book

STRUGGLES OF A COUNTRY BOY is the fictionalized story of the author´s growing up years during the 1950s. It is the story of a troubled boy, a dysfunctional family and how the boy learned to cope with the adversities life threw at him. The 1950s was the time when it was generally thought the ideal way to raise a boy was to live in the country, give him a dog, a .22 rifle and let him roam the open fields and woods and for Brad Burgess this was indeed the case. Although he was a troubled youth Brad was a unique person and his way of dealing with the adversities in his life were often dangerous for a young boy but showed great courage and a strong will for survival in a world he did not completely understand. Brad´s major problems were precipitated by his mother which is the reason for alternating chapters telling the story from her viewpoint of how she saw her life and the lives of the rest of her family. It becomes obvious to the reader that she had major mental problems. Her rages were short lived but extremely dangerous for a boy who could easily trigger one or be in the way when life took a twist his mother would be unable to deal with. Her dissatisfaction with life was not particularly different from other people´s but the way she dealt with it was. Brad was sexually abused by his ten year older half brother first before he entered the first grade and later when he was 7 and 8 years old. We see the effect of this abuse on his relationship with people, particularly women, though no connection is ever made between the abuse and these relationships. Brad learned to protect himself in a non-caring and sometimes hostile family environment while at the same time he discovered the good in his away-from-family environment, in the people he got to know and those who got to know him for the caring human being he developed into.

About the Author

Herb Blanchard is retired and living in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. He is a Vietnam Era Seabee veteran who spent several years stationed on Okinawa and made many trips to the island during his tours in Vietnam. He followed his six year Seabee tour with an Air Force hitch of four years as a KC135 tanker crew chief flying to and from Southeast Asia. He took every opportunity to return to Okinawa be for a two day lay-over or a 120 day TDY while flying missions to many places in Southeast Asia. Herb made many friends on the island, American and Okinawan. He knew the island and its people well and enjoyed every day he spent on the island.