Satisfaction

About the Book

Early autumn, 1964; and for Allan Ross, his final year at quietly prestigious Williams College seems pretty sure to stay predictable and dull—until he meets Ann Ash, the fascinating daughter of a powerful, and widely feared, professor.  

Suddenly, all bets are off, and Allan quickly learns that life holds infinitely more than good grades, campus savoir faire, and the joys of jamming to progressive jazz.  

As winter grips the Purple Valley, Allan’s neatly ordered world explodes in a storm of passion, doubt, and self-discovery.  Love, real love, leads to marriage, right?  So why delay?  Why hide?  What is there to be frightened of?  

The return of spring provides unlooked-for—and not always welcome—answers that leave Allan doubting every certainty his life seemed built on.  Stumbling through this underworld, he finds, as others did before him, that the dead have much to teach us; that what has been once may be again; and that unlooked-for obstacles can also offer opportunities.  

Summer brings an end to everything, and what comes after must remain a mystery—but one that holds a chance for perfect satisfaction!

            *    *    *

Yet another college novel??

Yes!  Because some stories never die—and what appears to be the past may reveal the future. 

For example, check the Prologue.  Are these really the 1960s you remember, or were told about?  What’s going on?

The Williams College in these pages is as much a waking dream as it is an evocation.  Rather than trying to bring history to life, this novel, Satisfaction, seeks instead to spin a web of possibilities—the same that re-emerge in every generation, and have done since troubled love began!

About the Author

Long a writer and editor at the World Future Society, publishers of the Futurist magazine, Lane recently retired as managing editor of the scholarly journal World Future Review. After attending Williams College, Lane won a Fulbright Scholarship to Germany and earned an MA and PhD from Harvard University. He also taught English in Hong Kong and worked as an escort-interpreter for the US Department of State. From 1984 to 1990, he wrote scripts and voice-over narration for SAI Productions, whose documentary television shows have been broadcast on PBS and in Europe. Lane lives with his wife, Cheryl, in Columbia, Maryland.