Lemon Custard

by Jack Remick

A woman stands on a windmill tower in Kansas, ready to kill herself. The woman is married, two kids. The farm is driving her crazy. She can escape by jumping or she can escape to the city. Olive needs to say goodbye to the kids. Saying goodbye, she changes her mind. She drops the kids with grandparents, steals her husband’s car, and heads for Wichita.

Lemon Custard is a story about a woman escaping a cage to start over.

Her cage is a farm, a husband, kids, chores, dirt, boredom.
Her journey goes from innocence (she’s known only her husband) to experience (sex with three men, including a rapist who’s married to a friend) to rebirth: free from the farm, Olive controls her own destiny.
Three women guide Olive on her journey from farm girl to city woman:
Janey, a waitress shows her the sexy, seamy side of night life.
Eileen, a transgendered former basketball player teaches Olive how to dress.
Rose, a psychiatrist opens Olive’s dreams to read her hopes for a new start. Olive is America migrating from the country to the city. Olive is America re-inventing itself. Olive discovers the hard truth—the American dream doesn’t end in happy ever after, it ends in loss, rebuilding, starting over with a new dream.

344 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

An accomplished novelist and poet, this author’s body of work explores the complexities of identity, isolation, moral conflict, and the human condition across shifting cultural and psychological landscapes. Blending literary depth with philosophical undertones, their writing spans novels, poetry, and collaborative works, often marked by introspection, existential tension, and bold narrative structure.

BOOKS

Valley Boy (Second Edition)
A defining work that captures themes of dislocation, personal struggle, and the search for meaning, set against a vividly rendered backdrop.

No Century for Apologies
A critically recognized novel shortlisted for the prestigious Hoffer Grand Prize (2023), examining the weight of history, memory, and consequence.

Citadel (A Novel)
A compelling narrative that navigates power, confinement, and the structures, both internal and external, that shape human lives.
Blood

A stark and evocative work that confronts primal instincts, violence, and emotional fracture.

The California Quartet
A sweeping four-part literary series mapping psychological and cultural terrain through interconnected narratives:

The Deification — Book One
Valley Boy — Book Two (First Edition)
The Book of Changes — Book Three
Trio of Lost Souls — Book Four

Gabriela and the Widow
An award-winning novel celebrated for its emotional depth and exploration of womanhood and resilience. Recipient of Best Women’s Fiction at the Orangeberry Virtual Book Expo; Montaigne Medal Finalist; Book of the Year Award Finalist.

COLLABORATIVE WORK

The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery (co-authored with Robert J. Ray)

A practical and insightful guide for aspiring writers, combining craft expertise with accessible instruction on constructing compelling mystery narratives.

POETRY

Satori: Poems
A contemplative collection reflecting moments of clarity, awakening, and inner transformation.

Songs of Sadness, Joy and Despair for the Anthropocene
A powerful and unflinching poetic work blending long-form verse and the sequence Josie Delgado, capturing the emotional and existential weight of modern existence.

ADDITIONAL FICTION

Doubles in a Game of Chance
A surreal and haunting novel centered on a bureaucratic nightmare, following a disoriented protagonist trapped in an absurd, relentless system.

Man Alone: The Dark Book
A deeply introspective and shadowed narrative examining solitude, identity, and the darker edges of the human psyche.