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The Hitchhike
The Hitchhike

The Hitchhike

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY

416 Pages, 6 x 9

Formats: Trade Paper

Trade Paper, $18.95 (CA $24.95) (US $18.95)

Publication Date: September 2020

ISBN 9781945448768

Rights: WOR

Boutique of Quality Books (Sep 2020)
BQB Publishing

Price: $18.95
 
 

Overview

A personal memoir about 1972 and the Vietnam era that reads like an action adventure

Mark Paul Smith's hitchhike from Indiana to India in 1972 changed him from being an Air Force Officer into a conscientious objector. He hitchhiked through the Iron Curtain and worked on a collective farm in Hungary only to find that communism wasn't our real enemy. He met people from North Vietnam who showed him the real enemy was the U.S. war machine. Being an American was popular in those days, but the people of the world showed Smith kindness and kept him alive when he ran out of money. The long road to decision showed him that people everywhere want peace, not war. His faith in the United States of America was restored when he sued the government and won his case in federal court.

Reviews

Publisher's Weekly review on "Honey and Leonard" - "Smith (Rock and Roll Voodoo) takes on the topic of love in one's twilight years in this uplifting tale. Widow Honey Waldrop and widower Leonard Atkins begin the novel happily in love despite Leonard's battle with the early stages of Alzheimer's and his scheming niece Gretchen's insistence that she keep power of attorney over him. But when Leonard's blood work shows an unusually high level of arsenic, Honey becomes a person of interest for allegedly poisoning him. The couple flees the law in favor of a romantic trip to Paris, insisting that the arsenic is from Leonard's years of working with pesticides on farms, and their story becomes international front-page news, billed as "the Bonnie and Clyde of love." Their love grows as they navigate newfound fame, failing health, and a foreign city; memory lapses and greedy heirs vying for inheritance money add depth. Though the prose is somewhat stilted, the premise is refreshing enough to keep readers engaged. Smith imbues his story of elders in love with plenty of rakish charm."—Publisher's Weekly

Author Biography

Mark Paul Smith has been a trial attorney for nearly forty years. He and the artist Jody Hemphill Smith own Castle Gallery Fine Art in Fort Wayne, Indiana.