In the Wake of the Boatman

Puttnam Douglas Steward is not having an identity crisis -- he is one. To his father Carl, he's a disappointment, and has been since the day he came home from the hospital. To his mother, he is "Mama's Boy", and will forever be nothing less and nothing more. The Army thinks he is a hero, having single-handedly saved his troops from an ambush when they stumble upon a major, unknown supply line in Vietnam, then exposing a major Soviet espionage ring in the U.S. Only Milton, Putt's college friend and environmental activist, and Putt's sister Mary see that something is deeply confused about Puttnam Steward. Yet neither of them knows that the only time Putt ever truly feels happy is when he wears a woman's clothes and becomes, for a brief, fleeting moment, someone else. And they do not know how much that disgusts him. This is a brilliant drama, stirringly and sensitively told, about the elusiveness of identity. Another important novel from one of America's most praised and accomplished novelists, it's a masterpiece that will not soon be forgotten.