The St. Michaels Library hosts author Jerry Sweeney who recently published A Tournament of a Distinguished White Order 5:30 p.m. Thursday, November 3 at the library.
Hear how it took the author sixty years to publish a novel set during the years of the Korean War, the rise of McCarthyism and the time of the loyalty oaths.
The novel is called A Tournament of a Distinguished White Order. Cover attached.
Tournament follows the complicated love duel between an Army private and a sensuous young actress, the pair energized and troubled by a romance set during the “forgotten” Korean War. Jim Mahoney learns how to soldier while Fawn Evans battles for a career on the New York stage. Jim is a writer transitioning from Joe College to GI Joe while she is spreading her wings from social butterfly to serious actor during Broadway’s Golden Age.
They reach adulthood during the turbulent Fifties that are roiled with conflicts concerning the McCarthy hearings, the Cold War and the loyalty oath at the exact time Manhattan has been crowned the world’s capital. An urban free thinker, Jim’s refusal to sign the loyalty oath brings him in confrontation with military justice.
The couple’s story details the problem of maintaining a love affair while deadly war looms. Meanwhile the aching needs of their bodies clash with societal and religious taboos before the time of the Sexual Revolution and The Pill. They are caught up in a ritual that imposes military and career disciplines on their minds clogged with Catholic rules that hinder the desire-charged lovers.
Strong male friendships carry Jim along. He luckily finds two outstanding friends among the draftee ranks of the citizen army—one a pessimistic hedonist and the other a humorous humanist.
Come by and celebrate. Light and not-so-light refreshments will be served.
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