The Jeeptown Sock Hop (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781470107635)

I grew up in a city very much like Jeeptown, then served two years in the Army. Thanks to the GI Bill, I attended college and afterwards had the good fortune to serve a tour of duty as Cultural Affairs Officer in the U. S. Embassy in Brazil. I became fluent in the language, fell in love with the culture, and to this day am involved with Brazilian friends. Little bits of that experience work their way smoothly into both of my novels. In The Patron Saint of Desperate Situations, the heroine Sonia is a single mom immigrant from Brazil, who, for reasons I don't understand, is liked better by female reviewers of the novel than by male reviewers. In Jeeptown, one of the most intriguing minor characters is Charlie's teacher, a nun who hails from Cape Verde and speaks English with a Portuguese accent. After three years in Rio, I returned to grad school and then became a professor of Political Science at a small liberal arts college. Currently at work on a third novel, I live happily with my wife Sandy in Falcon Heights, MN. Website: www.johnjharrigan.com/John_Harrigan/Home.html