Michael Burns

Gemini Michael Burns

Set in rural Vermont during the 1968-69 academic year, Gemini is the story of one man's effort to salvage his life. Jack Scanlon returns to his hometown after an 18 year absence, taking a position as a high school science teacher, and moving in with his uncle and his wife after losing, due to his excessive drinking, his wife and young daughter, and his job. Scanlon's ambivalence extends to his views on the war in Vietnam, the hippie culture, and his own identity. After an incestuous dream, he is driven to seek counseling. His counselor, with the unlikely name of Robert Kennedy, whose somewhat unorthodox therapeutic method includes whiskey drinking during sessions, becomes not only Scanlon's counselor, but his alter ego. Their relationship becomes fundamental to Scanlon's continuing struggle for a better life.