Synopsis
Pain and suffering associated with his mother’s murder and deceased wife’s death from cancer were collapsing Donnell Kennedy’s perspective on life and calcifying his heart and soul. He values security most of all, but is vaguely aware of being stuck in the cocoon he has spun to stay in control and protect himself from others. He is only vaguely aware of his inner melancholy. The idea that his life is spent and he is waiting to die frightens him so much that he denies the narrative he is living. Donnell has become largely invisible to himself and others; he is intensely private, overly cautious, and low risk taking. He feels increasingly dominated by omni-media and intrusive marketing of contemporary American culture. He retreats to the comforts of what he knows and what he thinks he can predict. The library is Donnell Kennedy’s safe place—the place where he has spent a lifetime working, bathed in the security of books. Well read and intellectually informed after decades as a librarian, he knows the lessons of history and wisdom of the arts. Almost without his consent, he submits (as he has done many times in the past) to the solicitation of his erstwhile supervisor at the library. She orders him to come to a meeting at the library where “agencies” looking for volunteers will describe their volunteer needs. He shows up, but has no intention of making any commitment of time and energy that would interfere with his retirement plan. (With his dog Boris, his only companion, he has plans to venture out into the world to hike and enjoy the wonders of Arizona outdoors.)Gladys Etheridge, volunteer program coordinator at FAMILY FRIENDS, an agency that matches adult volunteers with “underprivileged” children in Phoenix, Arizona calls him the following day. She invites him to meet a twelve-old dying boy named Daniel Letterfield and Daniel’s mother. Out of courtesy to a dying boy, he agrees to visit Daniel and his mother as a prospective “Family Friend.” He warns Ms. Etheridge that he will visit one time, and one time only. On this first visit, the boy engages him unconditionally. He has his first glimpse at the boy and his mother’s imaginative way of living, a way of living that he had never dreamed of. Their spirit tugs at him; he returns for another visit and another.
About the Author
Jack Boyd was born in Detroit, MI to parents who had emigrated from Ontario, Canada. He graduated from the University of Michigan in English Language and Literature and then served as a Peace Corps teacher in Kenya, East Africa. Upon returning to the U. S., he got his Master’s in Social Work and then worked with abused and neglected children and poor families in Michigan. After moving to Arizona, he provided social services to urban Native Americans. His first novel, Mary Wallace Roanhorse chronicles the saga of a Navajo woman struggling with her identity in a time of a fictional modern crusade. His second, Made of My father, is a sequel. His latest novel, “The Reluctant Volunteer,” is the story of an elderly man transformed by his volunteer work with a terminally ill boy. In addition to writing novels, Jack Boyd began writing poetry while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan; he has a written of short stories and retrospective on his experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer. He has volunteered at the Deer Valley Rock Art Museum, a petroglyph museum located in Deer Valley, AZ.
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