Potato Ridge
Submitted by: Mark McLane
Category: Books
Vietnam Veteran Captures Small-town Life in New Book
Potato Ridge is a story of life in a small Indiana town in the time and a place where the villagers struggled to preserve their long-held All-American ideals of God, Football, and the Constitution in the turmoil of dramatic social and political revolution sweeping the nation. It is a story of Love and Hate. Hope and Despair. Heartbreak and Happiness. Life and Death. Victory and Defeat.
Mark McLane was a radioman with the First Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam in 1969. When he returned to the world, he used the G.I. Bill to go to college. He wanted to be a high school English teacher. Finally, with his diploma in hand and seeking his peace, he hitchhikes into a small village in southern Indiana and takes up the mantle of a legendary and retiring teacher.
Potato Ridge, The Small town and its People, is a humorous, but touching book that trails the main character Felix, a Vietnam veteran traumatized by the experience of war while he settles among the town’s curious characters and foibles.
He moves into the old abandoned Grimme Place a mile or so out of town and finds his peace along the riverside and his comfort in the lives of his students, those seeking their own peace in the turbulence that lies hidden beneath the neat neighborhoods and the fertile corn fields and the soothing waters of the Whitewater River that winds through Potato Ridge and disappears around the bend.
Anyone with roots in a small town anywhere across America in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s will instantly recognize a piece of their past that long ago dropped like litter along the roadside of one’s own life experience. Anyone who has suffered through a war will know Felix. Those indelibly stained with the stench of war. This book will give back some understanding, mending, and peace of mind.
Potato Ridge is available today through Amazon. One dollar for every book sold through Memorial Day will be donated to the National Center for PTSD-Veteran’s Affairs.
Potato Ridge on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1547146486/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_slYSAbC5YZA2S
About the author:
Mark McLane spends most of his time in a classroom somewhere, either as a student or a teacher, and like most English majors, had dreams of someday having the time and energy to put into practice what he teaches. That time came, culminating in his first novel, The Impersonators, loosely based on his experiences as a struggling actor and stand-up comedian who paid the bills by teaching orthodox Jewish young men at a yeshiva in Los Angeles. Mr. McLane now lives in Brookville, Indiana where he completed work on Potato Ridge. You can contact the author at Mark@MarkMcLane.com to schedule public readings or interviews and follow him on Facebook: www.facebook.com/writerMarkMcLane