A Smell of Time

A Smell of Time is a collection of short stories that spans seven decades, starting in the fifties and ending in the present day. The Stories within each decade capture the feel, the smell, and the spirit of the times, not as academia or the maisntream media would have us view it, but as real people felt it who lived through these times. The stories range in depth from poetic childhood memories, to kids experiencing the JFK assassination, six grade girls breaking up with their boyfriend, marriage in the sixties, seventies, radical chic, college vainglory, coming of age in Chula Vista, the heartache of a young couple, exploits in bar-hopping, the enduring battle of the sexes, parents dealing with adversity, yuppies on parade, office voyeurism, a high-tech rite of passage, the political correctnes of owning a business, screenwriters gone off the rail, and a tribute to granddaughters.

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It's large in its breadth and scope, mixing humor, drama, tragedy, and irony over a sixty year span of American history. The worldview throughout these storiesw is a deeply conservative one, influenced by th writings of Tom Wolf, George Gilder, and Thomas Sowell, as well as the philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre. It transcends the newspeak of the cancel culture, celebrates the ecology of gender, and shouts to the heavens that waht matters--the truth that endures--has always been right in front of us and can never be destroyed.