☼ A Place In The Spotlight ☼ with M.C.V. EGAN: A season Without Rain

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

A season Without Rain

A Season Without Rain

Jacob Miller is angry with himself, the world, and God. Life seems so unfair, so cruel, that he can’t imagine why anyone even tries. After having a nervous breakdown, selling his business, filing for bankruptcy, having a baby, and finding out he owes over twenty grand in taxes, he is hardly happy to be alive.

In the span of a year, Jacob will discover three very important things about life. Things can always be worse. There really is a God. And if you wait long enough anything can change.

A Season Without Rain explores that gray area between poverty and middle class life, the struggling underclass for whom there are no advocates. A powerful story told in a modern, everyday voice that will entrench readers in Jacob Miller’s black world of anger, hate, resentment, lies, and violence.

A Season Without Rain is Joe Schwartz’s first novel. His previous short story collections Joe’s Black T-Shirt, The Games Men Play, and The Veiled Prophet of St. Louis have been acclaimed vulgar as Bukowski and visceral as Carver. Joe lives and works in St. Louis happily writing stories exclusively about the Gateway City.

What people are saying...

"Jacob isn't a hero or villain; he's just an average guy doing his best to navigate life's obstacle course. Like many of us, some of his problems arise from bad choices while other things are out of his control. This could be any man's story.

Through the hardships, Jacob questions his decisions and his faith. He contemplates suicide and wonders if there is a point to all his struggles. We see his anger, his sadness, his desperation, and his hope. All this is done with unflinching honesty.

At the heart of Jacob's story is the issue of his role as provider, which many men will identify with. The traditional male role in a relationship is to provide for his family. When that is taken away, Jacob is left floundering. He's stripped of his pride and his purpose. And, like many men, he does not or cannot share his feelings of helplessness with his wife.

This story, like life, is both simple and complicated. And, like life, the happy ending is often a matter of perspective."

- BookAddict