Michael Potts (2)

Jeffrey Conley returns to his childhood home in Tennessee to attend his Granny's funeral. As he roams the property, he recalls memories of the summer when he was nine years old. It was that summer that his world would change forever when he faces the most difficult loss of his life, the death of his Granddaddy. Since the age of two, Jeffrey was raised by his grandparents, his parents had been killed in a head-on crash with a tractor-trailer. He has no memory of his parents' lives nor their death, but his grandparents had provided him with the details of their lives and death. Life with his grandparents was good, he felt safe and loved with them. But as Jeffrey grows older, he is obsessed about death (the exact cause of death), and he also obsesses about the physical heart to the point where it becomes a fetish, because hearing a woman's heartbeat is arousing to him. As his obsession grows, his wife, Lisa, becomes concerned and when Jeffrey begins to feel like he is getting out of control, he goes to a psychologist for counseling sessions and is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, which is a mild form of autism. As he returns to his childhood home thirty years later, Jeffrey seeks out his favorite place on the property, The Thicket, his own little piece of Eden, where by reliving his childhood memories he will face his obsessions, the most difficult loss in his life, and hopefully find acceptance and peace of mind.

End of Summer is a poignant and moving story that will tug at your heartstrings. The story is told in the first person narrative by Jeffrey, and alternates between flashbacks to his childhood (age 9) and his present age (39). The storyline is intriguing and thought provoking, as the author interweaves Jeffrey's childhood and adult obsession of death and the physical heart with the most difficult loss that changed his life and molded the man he became. The attention to detail in the flashbacks to Jeffrey's childhood in the 1960s is phenomenal. The author transports the reader back to that decade to the Southern Appalachian country way of living. With lazy summer days spent in the fields or sitting on the porch swing, to Sunday supper with the family after attending church, to the old black and white television shows like The Three Stooges and Red Skelton, to going to Sears in Nashville for new dress shoes, to reading issues of Reader's Digest, and the old-fashioned red Coca-Cola machine, the author provides the reader with flashbacks to the 1960s Americana. As Jeffrey journeys through the memories of his childhood, he will realize how the changes in his life that long ago summer are both enlightening and heart wrenching, as he realizes that he can't hide or deny that changes and death do occur in life, and that the cherished memories of lost loved ones will always remain with him.

End of Summer is an inspiring and thought provoking Southern fictional novel of one man's journey to overcome his obsession with death and find peace through the power of cherished memories.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from WordCrafts Press Publishers in exchange for my honest review, and for hosting a virtual book event.

Virtual Book Event: On Wednesday, May 16, 2012, Jersey Girl Book Reviews hosted a virtual book event for author Michael Potts with an Author Interview.
http://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspot.com/2012/05/author-interview-michael-potts...

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