Enjoy the power of sarcastic small town humor in this amazing tale of love, faith, some military history, and how a young soldier in today's world uses random humor to deflect his true feelings of actually growing up in a series of his own story-time settings. This story has strong enough humor and military macho for a man, with just enough love potion for a woman. If you are not a believer, tired of the same old thing, or not an avid reader at all, then this book is the perfect quick read with something for just about everyone.
The act of being stuck in life can be described as one’s inability, borderline ignorance, of connecting those dots between our past mistakes and that integral relationship of making better choices for our future. The forever indecision of damned if you do, damned if you don’t, leaving us paralyzed in a conundrum of pause. At what point in our lives do we say. Ok—I surrender! Enough is enough already! I’m ready to change. I’ve tried it my way and now I’m ready to try Yours. I’m ready to live. It’s not a coincidence that things happen for a reason people and Stan Lee is the poster-child for such a cliché.
Holler Creek, otherwise known as the Holler to the locals, is a small town nestled in the Pocono Mountains located in Northeast, PA, with plenty of history and mystery surrounding one, Stan Lee, and his return home on leave prior to deployment. Stan, a sarcastic-ridden soldier is legitimately stuck in life, reminiscing back to his past, finding it difficult to make decent decisions based on his previous experiences that have left him a young man yearning for the grown-up things in life. He doesn’t view himself so stuck in life, but family and friends find him an easy target in reminding of previous mistakes to get him where he is. No, luck has never been Stan’s strong suit and he attributes this to a unique hand-stamp tinker toy he so mysteriously acquired back while working at the local drug store. Somehow, the pseudo-psychedelic era of the 80’s and all of its fashion trash keeps leaving its foot in the backdoor, bringing back the likes of parachute pants and legwarmers, as well as other treasures and music he identifies with throughout his story.
Stan is found disclosing some fairly intimate and humorous details of his life to a group of so-called strangers with 10 days left in country. One of which is SGT Syd, a Godly married man with children, whom Stan feels the only one worth warming up to, while others, including his battle buddies, he views as having some of the same immature qualities he possessed not so long ago. Stan’s first employer and subsequent grandfather of one, Wendy, whom he takes a particular interest in. Mr. Willy, a German defected soldier, along with his Belgian wife, Emmy, disclose an astonishing tale of love and perseverance which solidifies in Stan’s mind that love conquers all. We are left with the question-Imagine being a German defector moving to American soil right after WWII and trying to start a family, a business, and ever have a legitimate chance at life in America? Not without having some secrets that is.
On his return home, he finds that things have certainly changed, not always for the better. In fact, some seemingly strange things are happening, including an old acquaintance befriending his widowed mother, as well as hidden messages provoking him to come back. Come back to what? To this? Stan is found unable to deal with some changes, including a love triangle whom each has a few surprises that Stan learns of. Eventually Stan finds out that getting personal could break down his internal transgressions and by doing so, allows him to figure out what’s most important in life. He starts to learn of his true Godly plan in life, until tragedy strikes, all bets are off, and he is forced to deal with the reality and the hard truth that things really do happen for a reason.
