Cowboy

The second son of a hard-as-nails Texas rancher is drafted out of college for the Vietnam war.  Assigned to the Pentagon, he observes the great March on Washington protesting the war and questions why his peers are marching outside and he’s inside the walls of the citadel.   After his discharge, he enrolls at the University of Connecticut where he hopes to catch up with his generation. There, he meets and falls in love with a beautiful Woodstock flowerchild, a beguiling, free-loving, Tinker Bell in blue jeans, who guides him through the new mores that sorely test the values he was taught growing up.  After she breaks his heart, he seeks solace by returning home, and like the prodigal son, his family welcomes him and “kills the fatted calf.” It’s good to be home, but like the rest of the country during that time—he is forever changed.

“There is definitely one, if not a couple of movies in this novel. It’s not only the story of these characters in the sixties, but is also the story of the country.”

   —The late Myron (Mike) Weinblatt, President of NBC Entertainment and Showtime/The Movie Channel

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the Sixties, and Jim Davis faces a world at odds with the one in which he grew up. Bob Holt captures the essence of the decade with his impressive debut novel that is bawdy and tender and wise as a young man reconciles his past with his future.”

   —Mary Bryan Stafford, author of A Wasp in the Fig Tree and The Last Whippoorwill

“Bob Holt offers a compelling story of Jim Davis who grows up under the controlling power of his father, a Bible-thumping Texas rancher. Holt’s vivid account sets the stage for Jim’s stint as a rising army lieutenant before he turns away searching for his own independence. He lands in a liberal eastern college where the counter culture opens him to a new world of experiences and a love that almost destroys him.  Holt’s imagery immerses his reader in Jim Davis’ search for himself and his fight to capture his love.”

   —Myra Hargrave McIlvain, Award-winning author of Stein House and The Doctor’s Wife