Bruised Purple Hearts: Ghost of the USA

It is the early sixties as Matt Conklin and his twin brother, Max, graduate from high school amid interesting yet chaotic times that include the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, and the rise of feminism, gay rights, and the use of psychedelic drugs. Matt and Max could not be more different in their views of war, civil rights, and the part physical chemistry plays within relationships. Matt is a romantic idealist who stands up to civil rights abuses and the atrocities of war. While pursuing his dream of becoming a writer, he crosses paths with bigots, women who want to marry him, antiwar radicals, drug dealers, and gay friends struggling for societal acceptance. After he becomes a teacher to the disadvantaged, Matt craves intellectual stimulation and experiments with drugs. But what no one knows is that the spiritually sensitive Matt is receiving visits from ghosts who ask things of him. As the years pass, will Matt emerge from his struggles determined to live his truth or resigned to live a life he never wanted? In this historical tale, a young man faces racial prejudice, homophobia, and mindless acceptance of the war as he soldiers through the sixties and seventies in the swamps of Florida.

Bruised Purple Hearts: Ghosts of the USA
Jerry C. Blanton
iUniverse, Inc. c/o Author House
1663 Liberty Dr. Suite #300, Bloomington, IN 47403
www.iuniverse.com
9781532072093, $31.99, HC, 314pp, www.amazon.com

Synopsis: It is the early sixties as Matt Conklin and his twin brother, Max, graduate from high school amid interesting yet chaotic times that include the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, and the rise of feminism, gay rights, and the use of psychedelic drugs. Matt and Max could not be more different in their views of war, civil rights, and the part physical chemistry plays within relationships.

Matt is a romantic idealist who stands up to civil rights abuses and the atrocities of war. While pursuing his dream of becoming a writer, he crosses paths with bigots, women who want to marry him, antiwar radicals, drug dealers, and gay friends struggling for societal acceptance. After he becomes a teacher to the disadvantaged, Matt craves intellectual stimulation and experiments with drugs. But what no one knows is that the spiritually sensitive Matt is receiving visits from ghosts who ask things of him.

As the years pass, will Matt emerge from his struggles determined to live his truth or resigned to live a life he never wanted?

Critique: “Bruised Purple Hearts: Ghosts of the USA” is deftly crafted and thoroughly engaging novel in which a young man must deal with racial prejudice, homophobia, and the mindless acceptance of the war as he lives through the sixties and seventies in the swamps of Florida. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university library LBGTQ fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that “Bruised Purple Hearts: Ghosts of the USA” is also available in a paperback edition (9781532072079, $20.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $3.99).

Book Review

Bruised Purple Hearts: Ghosts of the USA
Jerry C. Blanton
iUniverse, 314 pages, (paperback) $20.99, 9781532072079
(Reviewed: October, 2019)

Jerry C. Blanton’s historical novel immerses readers in a time that’s fading into the fog of history: the turbulent ‘60s and ‘70s. As seen through the eyes of draft-age Matt Conklin, Bruised Purple Hearts: Ghosts of the USA is a skillful depiction of the days of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, when the fight for racial and gender equality and against the Vietnam War was capsizing the status quo.

Unlike many other counter-culture narratives told through the eyes generals and politicians, grunt soldiers and draft dodgers, this story describes how most young men navigated the era. Like Conklin, they opposed the war, but instead of fleeing to Canada or facing prison as conscientious objectors, they avoided the draft by working the Selective Service’s system of deferments.

For Conklin, that means attending college, and when school deferments run out, turning to marriage and teaching deferments. The narrative follows Conklin through indecision, failed marriages, difficult and low-paying jobs in poor rural schools, bouts of drug use, friends’ deaths, and constant self-doubts. He also experiences what seems to be apparitions of deceased friends and high-profile leaders, such as Martin Luther King, who occasionally offer advice. His alter-ego is his twin-brother, who voluntarily goes to war and emerges wounded and opposed to war.

Some baby boomers will see themselves in Conklin, having faced difficult practical and moral decisions. Others might see shades of Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation author who, like this story’s protagonist, delved into drugs, promiscuity, spirituality and travel. Unlike Kerouac’s stream of consciousness style, however, Blanton’s writing is focused, crisp and economical, opening a door into Conklin’s innermost, troubled mind.

Boomers who can bear returning to those turbulent times will find the story truthful and perhaps troubling. Younger readers will find an important history lesson: what it was like when a faceless authority could completely upend your life, order you into combat and perhaps to your death. In this, Conklin is neither hero nor villain, but everyman.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.

Amazon.com top review from the United States

By: J. Blanton
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2020

(5 star rating)

A difficult period of American History is portrayed with truth and feeling.

The characters are believable and come to life under the harsh conflicts of the Vietnam War, the Civil RIghts Movement, and the hippie counter culture. The young people stood up as best as they could to the government’s bullying, the society’s racism, and the counter culture’s inadequacies. If you lived during those times and weren’t confused and angry, you might have already been defeated and lost hope. The rest kept on trucking The main character saw much of it and survived the worst, but he never felt like a winner or a loser.

Product Details

Kindle format – $3.99
Publication date : July 22, 2019
File size : 622 KB
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 288 pages
Publisher : iUniverse (July 22, 2019)
ASIN : B07VQS6Y9W
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Language: English
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Lending : Not Enabled

Product Details

Paperback format – $4.73
Item Weight : 1.02 pounds
Paperback : 314 pages
ISBN-10 : 1532072074
ISBN-13 : 978-1532072079
Dimensions : 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
Publisher : iUniverse (July 22, 2019)
Language: English

Product Details

Hardcover format – $31.99
Item Weight : 1.39 pounds
Hardcover : 314 pages
ISBN-10 : 1532072090
ISBN-13 : 978-1532072093
Dimensions : 6 x 0.88 x 9 inches
Publisher : iUniverse (July 22, 2019)
Language: : English

The Author

JERRY C. BLANTON has taught high school English, managed a bookstore, served as an academic dean, and worked as a copywriter, proofreader, English professor, and writer. He has written more than twenty books that include mysteries, sci-fi novels, and poetry collections. Jerry currently resides in Homestead, Florida.

Available in
Paperback, Kindle, Hardcover