Books by Paul Neville
The Garbage Brothers
The Garbage Brothers is a poignant and funny story set in Chicago’s rapidly growing suburbs in the summer of 1969. Eighteen-year-old Jesse Wheeler’s comfortable and secure suburban existence crumbles after his father dies of a heart attack and his mother moves away, leaving his family broke and his naive, underachieving son adrift and without prospects. After graduating (barely) from high school, Jesse finds a summer job hauling garbage for Willard Sanitation Service with a crew of felons—Pickles, Zeus, Grits and their foreman Billy Bart—and their alcoholic boss, Benjamin Willard III, in the blue-collar town of Freedom. Grits, a knife-wielding former car thief, introduces Jesse to his niece, a plain-speaking and mesmerizing young woman named Iris who turns Jesse’s world upside down. Jesse’s intense relationship with Iris and his ability to survive the punishing lessons inflicted by his street-smart, hilarious and sometimes dangerous co-workers while winning their respect and friendship fills this gritty coming-of-age story with warmth, laughter and heartache.
Chasing Sam Bradbury
I recently completed the first draft of a second novel and am neck deep in process of editing and revising it. The book is titled “Chasing Sam Bradbury,” and it’s the story of a 13-year-old boy whose family, hometown and very existence are turned upside down by a Ku Klux Klan revival in a small southern Indiana town after World War II. Here is the opening sentence of “Chasing Sam Bradbury," which will be available some time next year: "When I was 13, I saw my Aunt Regina shoot a man dead through the glass door of my Grandpa Roy’s drug store on Main Street in Thornville, Indiana. ... "
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Town Drunks by Candy Odden
A woman recalls her childhood of trauma and joy in small-town Minnesota post-WWII. Her father battles scars seen and unseen from surviving the Bataan Death March and 3 1/2 years in a Japanese prison camp. Her loving mother, a Chicago city girl who loves lipstick and pretty clothes, is spurned by the farm women while her father drinks and carouses with the farm men and a local woman or two. Volatile flashbacks of war send dishes, pies, and chairs flying, and windows breaking while her mother, sister, and herself flee until it is safe to return. Gossips, struggling families, and friendships bring this town alive and real. This tiny town has more than its share of town drunks causing havoc on their own families. The drunks are so predictable you can set your clocks by them. All the while, the sisters climb trees, go swimming, hike, roller skate, stare at clouds, and dance in the rain. The two sisters dart between the trauma episodes in a contrasting and unique mosaic of childhood.
