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Men Without Hate
Men Without Hate is the story of two men inextricably linked by family and irrevocably changed by war. Juxtaposing two quintessentially American coming-of-age tales—and two iconic American wars, the Civil War and World War II—the stories of Lewis and Hilton Raines also offer reflect on the nature of family legacy, healing, and survival. With the world embattled by war and terrorism, the novel’s central question—how do some men’s souls survive the horror of war while others’ minds are destroyed by it?—has resonance for us all.
254 pages, Paperback
Published September 4, 2018
6 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Gene Lee
1 book3 followersI was born a breech baby in 1950s Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Mother’s side of family were lawyers, judges, and pioneers of Ft. Lauderdale. Father’s side of family? Not so much, being mainly drunks, bookmakers, and the like.
My parents divorced when I was four due to my father’s extreme alcoholism, a lovely gift he managed to pass on to me. Mother went to law school, while myself and two older sisters were looked over by a succession of nannies. Weekends and summers were spent on grandfather’s cattle ranch in Jupiter, Fl where I learned to fish and shoot and ride horses.
I planned to be a lawyer, but eventually—brought up in a family of readers and in love with books ever since reading Tarzan, the Ape-man in third grade—around the age of thirteen I began to re-think a law career. Influenced by Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I started writing stories.
When I was fifteen I stole a copy of Kerouac’s On the Road from the drugstore, and when I finished it immediately ran away from home, looking for the road and the kicks Kerouac had written about. My road trip didn’t last long and after being returned home by the authorities I entered high school, where Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool Aid Acid Test and the hippie explosion of the ‘60’s steered me into the counterculture. The fact that the local narcotic agents in Gainesville, FL, were breathing heavy down my neck, convinced me to drop out of college in 1972 and become what I envisioned as being a wandering Beat poet.
Reality caught up to me in my early 30’s. To pay the bills I started a mundane career in pest control, married, and raised a family in my hometown. During the 1980”s I stumbled into the poetry scene of South Florida and became heavily involved, reading my poetry at any available venue, as well as publishing that poetry in small literary magazines across the country.
I moved my family to Sebastian, FL in 1990 for the good fishing in the Indian River, as well as to get out of the madness of Ft. Lauderdale and bring my daughter up in a smaller community.
Due to health concerns related to my alcoholism, I retired in 1999. With more free time on my hands, along with being clean and sober after a thirty year run, I started writing fiction again. In 2004 I began writing the stories—though I had no idea at the time that would be the case—that would develop into the novel, Men Without Hate. I am currently working on a prequel of sorts to Men Without Hate, as well as revising a novel I wrote during the long process of finding a home for Men Without Hate.
My parents divorced when I was four due to my father’s extreme alcoholism, a lovely gift he managed to pass on to me. Mother went to law school, while myself and two older sisters were looked over by a succession of nannies. Weekends and summers were spent on grandfather’s cattle ranch in Jupiter, Fl where I learned to fish and shoot and ride horses.
I planned to be a lawyer, but eventually—brought up in a family of readers and in love with books ever since reading Tarzan, the Ape-man in third grade—around the age of thirteen I began to re-think a law career. Influenced by Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I started writing stories.
When I was fifteen I stole a copy of Kerouac’s On the Road from the drugstore, and when I finished it immediately ran away from home, looking for the road and the kicks Kerouac had written about. My road trip didn’t last long and after being returned home by the authorities I entered high school, where Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool Aid Acid Test and the hippie explosion of the ‘60’s steered me into the counterculture. The fact that the local narcotic agents in Gainesville, FL, were breathing heavy down my neck, convinced me to drop out of college in 1972 and become what I envisioned as being a wandering Beat poet.
Reality caught up to me in my early 30’s. To pay the bills I started a mundane career in pest control, married, and raised a family in my hometown. During the 1980”s I stumbled into the poetry scene of South Florida and became heavily involved, reading my poetry at any available venue, as well as publishing that poetry in small literary magazines across the country.
I moved my family to Sebastian, FL in 1990 for the good fishing in the Indian River, as well as to get out of the madness of Ft. Lauderdale and bring my daughter up in a smaller community.
Due to health concerns related to my alcoholism, I retired in 1999. With more free time on my hands, along with being clean and sober after a thirty year run, I started writing fiction again. In 2004 I began writing the stories—though I had no idea at the time that would be the case—that would develop into the novel, Men Without Hate. I am currently working on a prequel of sorts to Men Without Hate, as well as revising a novel I wrote during the long process of finding a home for Men Without Hate.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 15, 2018
Very compelling story
The story of the Raines family is raw and haunting making you want to reach out and touch them. It is well written carrying you along not knowing where it would end. I was really stunned at the end of the book and that alone makes it 5 star. Well done Gene.
The story of the Raines family is raw and haunting making you want to reach out and touch them. It is well written carrying you along not knowing where it would end. I was really stunned at the end of the book and that alone makes it 5 star. Well done Gene.
Displaying 1 of 1 review