There It Is

Big Shorty

Released: June 2023

Genre: Novels

Big Shorty is a humorous coming of age novel full of action and suspense.

It centers on family life in the 1950’s and 1960’s. We follow Winston Saddlesworth from being an 11year old Yankee boy shooting rattlesnakes in the pecan groves of his grandmother’s farm in Florida, back to Chicago where he in high school gets involved with gangsters in order to romance the alluring Camilla. His trespasses costs him a scarred nose and a send off as an enlisted soldier first with a stint in Bolivia to catch Che Guevara, next to Vietnam towards the end of the war where he gets involved with the Phoenix program.

Some magical realism keeps the reader alert throughout the book. The tales are tall and entertaining. Harper’s clever fiction mirrors the strangeness of life.

Winston returns home wounded from the war and suffering from PTSD. It is the group meetings with fellow soldiers and the heart warming no nonsense love of his grandmother that brings him back to life.

This is what readers say about Big Shorty:

"A Rollicking adventure story of growing up in turbulent times. This is a wonderful tale blending humor, Pathos and action. The chapters on the author's summers spent in Florida in the 1950's are just great. There is a smattering of post-civil war hostility to "the Yankee" from up North and a lot of good Southern eating. Then we enter the 1960's when we all could do anything. "That was the problem. Everything vaguely interested him."
Our hero's overseas military experiences are exciting and include smoking Cuban cigars with Che Guevara in the Bolivian jungle. The time he spends in Vietnam is also exciting, but also terrible to behold.
In reading this book I did learn how to say "I'll have a bottle of Vodka with ice" in Spanish. This may come in handy someday and I am grateful to the author for expanding my horizons.
I recommend this book for a fun read as well as insights into the human condition."

"A page-turning novel filled with humor that I highly recommend! Big Shorty is a coming-of-age novel that follows Winston Saddlesworth as he navigates through his teenage years and into adulthood. The reader follows Winston from when he is 11 years old and spending summers with his grandmother (Big Shorty or Grandmamie) and relatives, to his time as a soldier in the Vietnam War, and then readjusting to life as a civilian after returning home due to an injury.
The book is a fun read and filled with vivid storytelling - from Winston developing a strong bond with his Grandmamie shooting rattlesnakes on her farm, to an evolving relationship with his similar-age Cousin Roland, to interactions with the mob and falling in and out of love. At times serious, or suspenseful, it is kept light by witty dialogue and humor throughout."

Big Shorty is an amazing book. I love it all from the snake killing, to the summers spent with Big Shorty to Vietnam. Ken was a master storyteller. Every page is delightful.