Living in a Dark House

Although distinctly grounded in gritty Akron, Ohio, during the height and then the fall of the rubber industry, there is a mystical element in this novel that was written memoir style. Delanie Daye, with feet firmly planted on the earth, is a smart, hardworking girl who harbors a dark secret. She appears happy, funny, and carefree, but close friends catch glimpses into the "dark house" of life with Jim Dandy, her abusive and deranged father. On a quest for self-actualization, freedom, fulfillment, spirituality, and education, Delanie is transformed by the many unsuspecting, uncanny, and magical relationships that shape and carry her. With allusions to pop culture, music, literature, and the recent history of the 1980s, Delanie tells her story with heart, humor, and guts. Come along for the ride! Excerpt from Chapter 1The small block building, across the alley from the dark house where I lived, was in full production making body bags for American soldiers returning home from Vietnam. That white powder remnant of the created carriers of corpses, looking akin to, but definitely not baby powder with its indescribably foul smell as it floated through the air, landed on cars and our bicycles, and attempted to cover things like the truth. This gritty white talc, coupled with the black soot from the rubber factories making tires, kept food on our neighbors' tables, so we didn't really mind or complain. We were a working class town; we understood hard work and breathing it in; we sucked it up. Excerpt from Chapter 12She'd pick me up in her sparkling new blue boat Buick Electra, and then when I got my driver's license, I would driver us to the Victory Chapel. It was a small, wooden, peeling white paint church with a New England steeple. The people there demonstrated spirituality and, I felt, really connected with God. Sometimes, in the enveloping of the dark house, I wasn't always sure if my prayers were heard because Jim Dandy was still alive, but I continued to broadcast them to the Universe just in case. I always made sure to thank God for the special people in my life, making sure to omit Jim Dandy's name on my list. I wasn't thankful for him in any way, and I always made that clear to God.