"American fiction is not dead. Highly recommended."
— Library Journal
"Hazelgrove writes with warmth and feeling, his characters richly drawn, moving and evocative of it's time."
— Booklist
"Hazelgrove captures the essence of heartbreak and tragedy beautifully."
— The Denver Post color:ffffff
Rocket Man
When I started out to write Rocket Man, my forthcoming novel, I did not think I was writing a novel for our time particularly. I thought of it merely as a funny book about a man struggling to get his part of the American Dream and screwing everything up in the process. But now as I see the bank failures, the foreclosures, the immolation of the middle class, I see now that Dale Hammer’s story is very much our story. He is a man who just wanted to have his part of the pie with two kids and a house in the suburbs. But he found out that the price for this old American Dream was too high for any honest man to bear.
The middleclass is our country. It is not the rich and it is not the poor. It is that large middle that we aspire to, that our hopes and dreams that came to us as children sprang into existence and we then tried to recreate it for ourselves. We thought as did Dale Hammer that with some hard work and some sacrifice we should be able to live a life much like our mother and fathers. We should be able to enjoy our children, have an occasional dinner out, a few weeks vacation, and go to sleep not wondering how long we have until foreclosure documents arrive.
Yet this is our reality. We don’t used words anymore like depression. We call it an extreme recession or a recessionary economy. It doesn’t matter what you call it, we are living it, and as gas goes up along with everything else we find a new type of stress we have to deal with—the stress of implosion. I suppose that is what Rocket Man is really about—implosion. It follows a man for one week and it is that week his life comes apart. He is trying to keep up with everything, be a good father, a dutiful Rocket Man for his sons scout troop, a good father to his daughter, a good son to his own father who has just landed over his garage after being kicked out by his wife. And he is trying to be a good husband—all this comes to a head in one crazy week.
And there is a resolution. It is what middleclass people all over the country are finding out—there is a fallback position. It may not be the American Dream the media has been selling for the last twenty years, but it is really the dream we started with. My father had one car, a rented house, and a job that barely cleared twenty thousand dollars and we were doing alright. Everything was old, the car, the refrigerator, the carpet, but we didn’t care. My mother was at home and Santa Claus came on Christmas and we went out for ice cream occasionally and we played in the yard until dark. It was a middleclass childhood and one that seemed to slip away with my generation. As Dale Hammer observes on the final pages of the book after everything blows up: “I guess you could say we are downwardly mobile, but I really don’t look at it that way. We are where we are supposed to be.”
We should all be so lucky. color:ffffff
About me: I'm a novelist with four published books. I have a studio in Ernest Hemingways attic. http://www.billhazelgrove.com
Rocket Man is about a man trying to hold onto his home in the suburbs of Chicago.
"Rocket Man is a brilliant piece of writing, a work that meticulously dissects contemporary American life with such a keen eye that he catches glimpses of us all at least in passing."
Grady Harp Sixth Ranked Amazon Reviewer
Rocket Man chronicles the impossibility of the American Dream as sold to us before the crash and then catches up with a family trying to deal with the aftermath.
"Best novel I have ever read."
Charles Achbacher
Top Ten Amazon Reviewer
http://www.billhazelgrove.com
It is a novel for our times.
As a winter present for everyone, I'm offering a free novella on my website.
A Happily Ever After of Her Own
Melinda Lightfoot, a preschool teacher with an unusual ability to flit in and out of fairy tales, never thought she would get into trouble...
...until the Fairy Tale Police arrest her while she is in Beauty and the Beast. They offer her a deal: Find Beauty, who left the story when Melinda trespassed into it, or be charged with the ultimate crime -- Fairy Tale Killer. If that's not bad enough the Beast tags along in search of his true love, and Melinda starts falling for the fairy tale prince. She must choose between doing the right thing and having her own happily ever after.
Hallo, bedankt voor de vriendschap (hello, thanks for the friendship) a dutch reader, dreamer and owner of a small 2nd hand bookstore in Haaksbergen the Netherlands (the picture is NOT (sadly enough) my store c.q Library) but it is a dream ....
Visit my page for 7 writing tips from Michelle Styles, plus a sneak peak at her upcoming release Viking Warrior, Unwilling Wife. Also, during the month of November, I have been blogging 15 yummy Christmas recipes sent to me by the authors of One Candlelit Christmas, Julia Justiss, Annie Burrows, and Terri Brisbin. The last recipe went up yesterday.
Hi Bill--Thanks for the add! Rocket Man sounds great. It's now on my list.
If you haven’t already, please check out my novel, GETTING IN TUNE, and hear the fictional Killjoys at www. rogertrott. com. The story is about an angst-ridden guitarist who drags his band onto the road in search of the transcendent power of Pete Townshend’s Universal Chord. It’s a wild ride through the world of ‘70s rock & roll. Best—Roger
A book for our time. I wrote the novel, "Margaret and David: A Love Story" a few years ago. It is about America after its second civil war. The Muslims have gained control of the government. It is an interracial love story against the backdrop of a movement, akin to the civil rights movement many decades past, only this time it is the white population struggling for equality and freedom . . . Margaret, black college student meets and falls in love with David, the white population's "Messiah." Against all odds they fight for what is right. Read the full review on my page . . . Click on the picture to purchase . . .
Thank you for being a friend. I look forward to getting to know you.
Be sure to check out my blog for some great Halloween decorating tips and some tidbits about the new short and sexy Historical Undone eBook line that launches in November.
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