My Yankee Family Lost and Found

ISBN-13: 9781453756263 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 402 str.

Jerzy E. Henisz

Opis

A novel emerged out of separately published stories: A young Austrian man embarks on a journey to US in search of his family. He was able to find diary of his late grandfather, Leslav. The dairy brings to light his multiple identities. He was also a lover of a married woman and fathered two children by her. Upon the narrator's return to Austria all members of the Yankee Family are brought to life in a Halloween masquerade. Patricia, his cousin, attended the masquerade. Impressed by the show she challenges the young author, to go, with her on a trip to a foreign country. He accepts the challenge. They meet in London and proceed to go to Portugal. His expectations for an immediate romantic/sexual affair end in a disappointment. Elsie, an English girl fills the void. The longing for Patricia persists. When she offers to meet him in Paris he takes the second chance. Love and sex in Paris and Manhattan lead to an engagement. Elsie travels to Heidelberg but does not succeed in breaking an impending marriage. The love story is interwoven with criminal investigation of two murders: Patricia's father Milton and Greorg's grandfather Leslav. Happy end is delayed by totally unexpected complications. Greorg, moves to Whangarei, New Zealand to start a new chapter of his life. There he is arrested and charged with sexual molestation of Lolita, a girl resembling the heroine of Nabokov's novel. The country is in the middle of controversy about Coddington Index, the list of sexual offenders, just published. Initially the press publishes condemning stories about Greorg but gradually comes to his help. Greorg is released from jail, publishes a controversial book about modern witch-hunting trials and is invited to be a keynote speaker at the major international congress. Now, a celebrity he is shot in the chest and almost dies. Old love gets the second chance. The story is interwoven with discussion of feminist movement and "the death of man" in western civilization.