"I BELIEVED AND BREATHED EVERY SINGLE WORD."
Set in the immediate aftermath of World War II in occupied Japan, among General MacArthur's headquarters which has moved its office from the Phillipines to Tokyo in September, 1945, the narrator of Michael Knight's skillfully told tale is a typist in this office, Francis Vancleave, whose life becomes caught in the fates of those around him: his battle-veteran bunkmate and the two Japanese women they meet; Van's stateside wife whose news in a letter to him one day changes his life; and MacArthur's young son, befriended by Van at the request of the General because "the boy was spoiled, yes, but he was so marooned by the nature of his life, he was ignorant of his privilege. It's possible he was the loneliest person I ever met." A mere 190 pages, you think you want a book this small that is this good to be a longer book -- except it's perfect as it is, a book Richard Bausch deemed "imagining at its finest," and about which Elizabeth Gilbert said "There is not a misstep, not a mislaid sentence. I believed and breathed every single word." Attn: Hollywood -- The Typist would make one hell of a movie. RH
MICHAEL KNIGHT APPEARS AT OFF SQUARE THIS FALL ON THACKER MOUNTAIN RADIO (September 2nd at 6PM)