After losing his mother to a runaway car, Alex was determined to never again be without the skills necessary to protect those he loved. Life became a welcome routine of study and work when he was sent to live with his military officer father overseas. That is, until his father went MIA. Stunned by loss, and determined not to end up in an orphanage, Alex began a near-impossible journey to find the one man who could continue his education
The World According to Garp was perhaps the first sign to a troubled young man that his life might very well be okay. It was incredibly reassuring to see that a young man from such a deeply interesting background can find his niche in life. G. Russell Gaynor was not nearly as challenged as T. S. Garp but until the revelation of the character, relatively speaking Russell was the weirdest kid on his block. His father, a career United States Navy man, taught him how to stand up to face the most challenging aspects of life including the unknown. His mother, a nurse and a technician for the U.S Geological Survey, taught him how to love and how to understand.
Russell was 5 when he found that people should be responsible for what they say when he had to write a story to back up his claim to his grandmother that he could do better in his sleep than the black and white movie he had watched. He handed two notebook pads to his grandmother who then agreed with his opinion. That was indeed the beginning!
In the beginning, it was mostly stories about super heroes and the stuff of comic books. Then came the works of Alexandre Dumas and the ideal of romantic heroes. Now there was a need to make women swoon and men weep as poetry was discovered and written. Russell was 12 when he went to his first play, which revealed a love for the stage and was 14 when role-playing games filled his head with the adventures of steel and sorcery. This all concluded with the love of the story and its affect on the audience. Although life defies understanding, Russell has set about the challenge of teaching through his stories, in small baby steps, the lessons of love and life he has come to treasure since learning so much through the viewpoints of others.
It will always be the opinion of those who receive art to measure its worth, but to date Russell is working his way to penning his 40th book. That goes along with his score of scripts, (three which have been optioned), two plays, scores of poems and a role-playing game system. This too is only a beginning!
BIASED! The first of the series... the first to leave the nest! I have always been a fan of the 'world within a world' storyline and this one takes its focus on the shadows of our world.
As the Series is ready to take off once again, I read the pages, getting ready to publish a Second Edition!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.