“Gary Forrester has written an insightful, passionate, yet rational book that stays with the reader long after the last page has been turned.”—Mitch Cullin

In a shuffling odyssey through the heart of the American Midwest (a mini-van road trip to the Ozarks with his two youngest kids), he confronts his past, imagines his future, and redefines his love for his children. Or does he imagine his past, confront his future, and perplex his children? In a circular nine-day journey, Hooker stumbles through the disjointed epic of his life, looking in vain for signposts in his broken memories of Australia, Italy, the Caribbean, and the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.

But sometimes it takes a crooked path to guide you home. As it was for T.S. Eliot’s Little Gidding, so it is with Christian Leonard Hooker: the end of his exploring is to arrive where he started, and to know the place for the first time.

Gary Forrester grew up in the flatlands of central Illinois. He matured backwards. Houseboating in the Ozarks is his first novel. Please visit his Web site at www.garyforrester.com.

April 2006, 5½ x 8½, 224 pages (Dufour)
ISBN 0-8023-1342-6 Cloth $24.95
ISBN 0-8023-1341-8 Paper $14.95