M B Landry

Every Living Thing M B Landry

Jimmy Donovan had always been told his father was a hero. The myth had been rooted next to him in utero by his mother. He drew sustenance from it; it emerged as his earliest companion when he drew his first breath. Now in middle age, Jimmy is facing many crises in his life. His marriage is in trouble, his estranged daughter cannot be located and his stepfather is in ill health. The remains of his real father, James Kirkpatrick, listed as MIA during the Korean Conflict in 1951, have never been found. In Part Two of "Every Living Thing," Jimmy must unravel the mystery of who his father really was - the hero he'd always been told he was or something different, something less? The stories Jimmy has heard about his father have become part of his coping strategy, ways to make his absence seem more bearable. It is difficult to know one's father for many reasons, but at least, in part because a son's imagination constructs various possibilities. Jimmy has evolved into a man used to having his way, one who has not always appreciated, or found meaning in the duties of his own responsibilities of parenting young daughters. He was happier to let their mother deal with the details. Now, Jimmy must decide if Carl Jung called it right: "what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening become a lie."