The Second Virtue

by Dennis Vickers, Rebecca Vickers (Cover Design)

The Second Virtue tells the story of three remarkable individuals: Donald is an eighteen-year-old striving for independence; Telli survived a horrific crime and labors to overcome the fears the experience left behind; Joy longs to escape her cynicism and reconnect with the hopeful woman she once was. Crisp and fast-moving, the novel weaves three stories into a fabric held together by a common theme - courage.

260 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2009

About the author

Surprisingly, truth is best told through fiction. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Of course, lies are best told through nonfiction, but I don’t do that. With fiction, the story can be about almost anything so long as it has the stuff of life in it. The stuff of life -- aye, there’s the rub.

Like bears and Sasquatch, Dennis Vickers lives in the north woods. Sometimes he teaches philosophy and creative writing at a tribal college; other times he holds up in a river cottage and writes this stuff. As the previous sentence proves, he knows how to work semicolons and isn’t afraid to use them.

Book-length fiction:
1. Witless: Rural communities clash in 18th Century Wisconsin.
2. Bluehart: Life story of fictional blues accordion player.
3. Second Virtue: Courage -- where it comes from and where it goes.
4. Adam’s Apple: Life story of congressman who fucks his mother. You thought they all did?
5. Passing through Paradise: Narrative collage mixing quest story with love story with satyr play. No salt.
6. Between the Shadow and the Soul: Love and lust, or maybe the other way.
7. Mikawadizi Storms: Open pit mine vs. pristine forest. You decide.
8. Double Exposures: Collection of short stories, some realism, all magical.
9. Only Breath: Ghost story wrapped in a mystery wrapped in waxed paper.
10. Only Words: Lost-love quest story set in neolithic Europe told by the words themselves.

Reviews

[Jo Notary]

260p Three people; three predicaments; one solution. Telli Trujillo survives a horrifying bank robbery but is haunted by the experience. What does he need to prevail over his fears? Joy Juneau is a plucky thirty-year-old boss's concubine trapped in a rut of cynicism. What does she need to reconnect with the hopeful young woman she once was? Donald Duffy is a high school senior stripped of self-confidence by his overbearing mother. What does he need to mature into a self-assured adult? The answer is courage - the second virtue. Searching for the daring to become themselves weaves these characters into a braid of uplifting, funny exploits, including the Sherlock-Holmesian unraveling of a stubborn crime puzzle, a boy propelling himself to freedom by stealing his mother 19s car to take a girl she despises to the prom, and the best sex scene ever involving a woman with casts on both legs. The Second Virtue explores the dimensions of the search for inner resolve and rediscovers in a fresh, perceptive voice the universal truth Charlie Chaplin once observed: "Life can be wonderful if you're not afraid of it. 1D