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The Chester Chronicles by Kermit Moyer

By Clark Isaacs  

Writing about your life, which you know best, can be in many forms. Autobiographies are done without embellishment, but when you fictionalize your life you get the opportunity for a 'do-over' to correct your mistakes. Kermit Moyer, in "The Chester Chronicles", has created Chester Patterson, a mirror image or doppelganger, of his own life.

An Army brat tells the stories of how he traveled through life until the ripe old age of 21. Chet describes many places where he had lived and was schooled on the facts of life. His relationships with young girls and young women during his growing-up escapades in various cultures around the world, makes this a more mature read, while still in good taste, and with very little vulgarity.

Each episode is complete and could stand alone, but when read with an eye towards what is coming next, the reader soon realizes that all is connected in a clean cut manner. Chet grows in stature throughout the book and becomes a person who would make his worldly military father proud by being conscious of social issues. Discussed are the improprieties of the riots in Los Angeles, attitudes of people he meets in college, and a bartender in Winter Park, Florida who expresses negativity toward blacks. At all times, Chet defends people of color and demonstrates his distaste for prejudice.

An incident regarding his early experience with alcohol while in high school was very moving and funny. Chester Patterson discovers that his father is now treating him as an adult, even though he is only 16. Underage drinking is not condoned, but when Chet gets into a problem of locking his keys in his dad's trunk after having a beer, the first person he calls for help is his dad. His friends are surprised that he is not grounded for his actions like they were. A strong bond with his father eventually develops and is sustained throughout the rest of the stories.

Kermit Moyer has an advanced educational background running through a PhD in English, very similar to the educational track which his character was currently pursuing. "The Chester Chronicles" is Moyer's second book. "Tumbling" was his first book and was a collection of short stories receiving wide acclaim.

Well-written in a first-person personae, Chester brings to life the trials and tribulations occurring in the 50's and 60's. This book is not just for younger people, but is geared towards those who lived through that era.

This book is highly recommended as a good work of literature and entertainment.

The Chester Chronicles
Author: Kermit Moyer
ISBN: 1579621945, Pages: 232, $26.00 Publication Date: February 1, 2010, Cloth, Fiction, Published by: The Permanent Press

Clark Isaacs is an accomplished book critic who is published in local newspapers and national book review lists. Contact Clark through his website at clarkisaacs.ning.com or through NewsBlaze.