Four Steps from the Sycamore

Jacob Boden is a fifty-three-year-old recovering alcoholic, at odds with himself, his family and God. In an effort to overcome his loneliness and isolation, Jacob begins a fearless moral inventory of his past. Along the way, he shares his "love-at-first sight" encounter with Meg Roberts and the bittersweet relationship that ensues and becomes an obsession; recounts misadventures and scrapes with the law as he tries to adapt to family moves, new environments and changing societal values; describes the terror of fighting in the rice paddies of Vietnam; recalls experiences with drugs and alcohol on the back alleys of Saigon and streets of Washington D.C.; and reveals what it was like to rejoin society while suffering from alcoholism. Interwoven with dreams and reappearing alter-egos who help Jacob find his road in life, Four Steps from the Sycamore is the intense struggle of a man searching for meaning. Its open and honest appraisal of this journey provides each of us with permission to look into the darkest sides of our nature and find the demons that block the pathway to the soul.

Dr. Bob Rentschler received the ADI Educational Excellence Award for his work with disadvantaged students in 1996. His service with the 82nd Airborne in Vietnam and his work with troubled youth have provided background for this novel. Bob lives with his wife, Sandy, in Grantsville, West Virginia.