Son Of My Hope: Comprising Certain Fragments, also Reminiscences, from the Life of Cor Calloway (ePub)

Clark Calloway's Son Of My Hope is really two books in one, book-ended with a Prologue and Epilogue. Book one, "One Year In Amherst", is a coming-of-age story with a dash of teen romance and sentimentality. The year is 1969 and 15-year-old Cor Calloway is working at a gas station in Amherst, MA. There he becomes acquainted with an older boy, Dan Mallow, aka Tyro, who introduces him to marijuana. When Cor's father discovers this, they fall out. Later Tyro involves Cor in a theft, forcing them both to flee to a mountain hideout where Cor learns the truth about Tyro.

Book two, "The City", takes place both before and after "Amherst". The city is the "holy city" in the Book Of Revelation, the object of Cor's labor, love, and—more dangerously—mania and fanaticism, a mania and fanaticism that is exposed with tragic consequences when he returns home from college after five years of monk-like isolation to see not only his critical and judgmental father but his much changed girlfriend, who recognizes his genius but belittles his worldly innocence and fervent belief in God.

"Boldly original": so say the book jackets of most novels of the last ten years, not to mention movie blurbs. But Son Of My Hope really is original, a religious drama which nevertheless bucks every religious convention and whose world view, whether you agree with it or not, is unique and original.