The story takes place in seven stages, like Shakespeare in the Tempest when Jacques says…

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages."

 

The book is 244,000 words. Twice as long as any of my other books.

 

The title is from a U2 song, Love Rescue Me, found on the Rattle and Hum album.

 

Quotes from Shakespeare and many other literary icons as well as a ton of song lyrics color the narrative throughout the book.

 

Book One / Love Hurts

 

Jack St. Clair is a trust fund, womanizing, guitar playing, ex Golden Gloves boxer. In the first part of book we find Jack at Boston University; circa 1969-73. He falls in with a bunch of disenchanted radical students from the SDS; Students for a Democratic Society. The trio is known as the BU-3.

 

While in college he meets the love of his love, Diane Dante (Jack & Diane) and they live together for three years. Diane teaches Jack how to sew and Jack uses his new found skills to alter his warm up sweats, adding a hood to his sweatshirts, tee shirts, his Godfather of Soul bathrobe, even his pajamas have a hood. Diane calls his altered clothes "The Saint Hoods." Jack always thought that was a good name for a band. The name comes into play later in the book.

 

Jack is a popular entertainer around Boston and sings at many political rallies and demonstrations. His original songs are played on the local FM station’s "Rare Tape Night."

 

Jack unwittingly gets involved in a political bank robbery with the BU-3. . Two of the participants are killed and Jack is forced to leave Diane and their love nest without as much as a good bye. He goes underground. This part of the book has such real characters as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin.

 

Act II: On the Road

 

After two of the cohorts are killed during the robbery, Jack and Dimples Goldman flee to Vermont. Jack calls

himself Robin Strangis (robbing strangers.) While there other young people on the run for one reason or another join them in a safe house. A charismatic leader named Dean Cassidy leads the commune. Jack takes a job as a bartender and spends his day snow skiing and avoiding the other inhabitants of the commune. After a confrontation with Dean, Jack thinks about leaving. Dean swears revenge and Jack knows his time at the farm is coming to a close. And he must leave soon. Soon enough, the FBI discovers the nest and firebomb the house. Jack and Dimples escape showing up on Nantucket Island; a remote island 26 miles off the Massachusetts coast.

While in Nantucket, Jack meets many of the local residents and rock stars. He volunteers as a town ambulance driver. His fighting name had been Jack, The Saint, St. Clair. Which he changes to Jonathan Sinclair 3rd, close but enough to throw the FBI off his trail. Everyone just calls him "Panhandle" a reference to the mythological town where he supposedly came from. Everywhere he goes Jack inadvertently touches people’s lives. He saves one man’s life, bringing him back from the dead and helps many others. He is forced to flee the island after a deadly fire, in which Dory, now a hopeless cocaine addict, is seemingly killed. Jack flees the island in the middle of the night.

 

 

Act III: The Southern Road

 

From Nantucket Jack goes to Tallahassee Florida and joins the Florida State University Circus. Because of his

training and nimbleness, he becomes a successful trapeze artist. He develops a friendship with a beautiful Southern aristocrat named Sienna Driscoll and a midget clown named Holden Caraway 3rd. He makes an enemy of Moses Thomas Jefferson, a black clown in white face. After a tragic accident where Sienna (Sin) is paralyzed, Holden kills himself. Jack personally deals with Moses, who is responsible and finally slips away into yet another night.

 

Leaving Tallahassee, Jack finds a weird and wonderful community in the woods near Chattahoochee Florida, infamous or being the home of the Florida State Institution for the Insane. Jack is forced to box in order to stay in the shadowy settlement, all the time writing songs and meeting new people and helping strangers whenever he can.

 

The town is called Dogtown. Jack befriends many of the unusual inhabitants but makes a deadly enemy of Alex

Redbone, a convicted murderer, puppy killer (you'll see) and current boxing champ. He makes friends with Chet Youngblood, a Vietnam Vet who becomes a lifelong friend. Chet and Jack tag team a dangerous enemy. Jack also befriends a helpless young innocent named Jolene (Juliet) Jensen as well as one of the sons of Cathy Ames, the camp’s leader; a cultural reference to Cathy Ames the wicked mother in East of Eden. Connor Ames and his brother Alden are a modern day retelling of the Cain and Able story. Jack has a profound effect on the young Jolene Jensen and Connor Ames.

 

While in Dogtown Jack comes into contact with a fortuneteller named Ruby Kitt. Miss Kitt seems to know all about Jack; both his past and his future. She leaves him with a dire warning, "When you are in the Towers, walk down." That advice eventually saves Jack’s life.

 

Jack finally fights Alex Redbone, but it doesn’t end like you might think. In the process, he restores Chet’s self worth and leaves Jolene (Juliet) Jensen with a promise of hope for her future.

 

Jack leaves Dogtown on a train bound for nowhere. On this journey he meets Joel Simmons a clothing manufacturer with a secret of his own. Joel has a great effect on the young fugitive’s life. Joel teaches Jack the garment biz, where Jack thrives under yet another assumed identity, this time calling himself Gram Powers.

Jack is unable to communicate with Diane for fear the FBI will track him down. Diane has moved to France and unbeknown to Jack has his baby, a beautiful young girl, born on Christmas Day in Paris. Jack sends his letters to his lifelong friend Delo who compiles them as he is sure they will make a great book. The working title is "Notes from the Underground."

 

    Jack is on the Run from 1973-1981.

 

By 1980, President Carter has granted Amnesty to many of the Vets; it is a time of healing. After John Lennon is assassinated, Jack decides to come in from the cold. He has written many songs on the road, one of which hears Jack in a backwoods roadhouse. While on the road Jack meets Kris Kristofferson "Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose." Kris becomes another lifelong friend, coming in and out of Jack’s life at pivotal times.

Diane has also been writing Jack the whole time he has been gone. Are unable to send one another letters for fear of the FBI finding out Jack’s whereabouts. Jack’s unrealized child, a precocious little girl named Emma, grows up in Paris under the watchful eyes of her mother and her mother’s employer Dr. Marco Falerne. Diane and Dr. Falerne tell the young girl that her real father had been killed in Vietnam and as a result of her grief, she had moved to Paris. Dr. Falerne loves decisions. After Jack's first marriage fails, he tries to find Diane but the trail is too cold. By now Diane has given up on ever reuniting with Jack. Jack never gives up on finding Diane.

 

Jack turns himself in after earning a lot of money in the clothing business. Several of his songs have become

popular. Since he did not actively participate in the bank robbery and was an unwitting driver, the Governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis, grants him a pardon. He gets drunk with Kitty and attends a rally on the steps of the Boston State House thrown in his honor, where he runs into many of the people he had helped while on the run.

 

When he was in college, Jack was embroiled in a flag burning controversy. This occurrence will directly affect

Governor Dukakis' Presidential hopes. If you Google Kitty Dukakis Flag burning you will see that a similar incident may have cost Governor Dukakis the Presidency. Jack is approached by Oliver Stone to do a movie of his life, "I was there" but he declines. In effect, he becomes the poster boy for the radical left and the 60’s in general, giving a face to "Radial Chic." He writes a new song. I was there, do you care?

 

Act IV: Success, Married with Child,

Freedom and the Aids Epidemic

 

Jack is now the owner of a successful clothing business and he introduces his Saint Hood line of clothing. Everything has a hood and subsequently, through hard work and talent, he becomes rich. He is with former radical Jerry Rubin when Jerry is killed jaywalking on Wilshire Ave in Los Angeles. Jerry had become a successful investment banker and he and Jack invest their funds in a company called, "The People’s Portfolio." Jerry tells Jack, the real work towards freedom and in the fight against poverty is in the corporate boardrooms. Jerry operates out of a storefront location in Silverlake and Jack sees that change can indeed occur from within. Jack takes this lesson to heart.

 

Jack achieves some success as a guitar player and makes many friends in the music business. Some of the

players we meet are Warren Zevon, Harry Nilsson, Joe Walsh, Jackson Browne, Nicolette Larson and Dirk Hamilton. Kris Kristofferson has recorded one of Jack’s songs. Kris is now an old friend and becomes a mentor as well as a constant presence in Jack’s life.

 

Jack loses several friends to AIDS and subsequently the old champion of justice reemerges. Saturday Night Live

does a sketch about former radicals making money, spoofing Jerry Rubin and Jack among others.

 

After the rally in Boston and Jack’s pardon, Time Magazine puts Jack on its cover calling the story, Radically Hip. The cover story tells the history of the "Radical, Garmento." As a result, his clothing company Bluesmen Inc’s business goes through the roof.

 

Due to the fact that the Reagan administration has failed to mention AIDS once in the first four years of its Presidency, Jack flips Ronald Reagan the middle finger salute during the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics. Jack does this from his private box at the games. The ensuing fallout is not good for Jack or his clothing company. The Religious Right goes into battle with Jack and Bluesmen. Jack the fighter prepares to undergo the battle of his life.

 

Joel Simmons, now hopelessly senile leaves his clothing empire to Jack. Jack’s old friend Chet from Dogtown contracts the HIV virus and Jack watches him wither away. Shortly before Chet’s tragic death, Jack marries Playboy Playmate Margaret Corday at singer Jackson Browne’s house. The wedding has many notable and famous celebrities. Jack sings a beautiful song to his new bride at the historic home built by Jackson’s grandfather, Clyde Browne.

 

Greatly missing his best friend, tired of the government’s non-response to the greatest crisis of his generation, Jack becomes an AIDS activist. After receiving a large apparel order from one of the local department stores, Jack decides to use his money to help AIDS awareness. He ties in a large Olympics theme clothing order with a condom giveaway. It nearly costs him his company.

 

Jack marries former Playmate Margaret Catherine Corday, (Maggie the Cat) who is the National sales manager for his company. Margaret is unstable but bears Jack a spirited daughter whom he raises. Jack is a hands on father. He raises Juliet Red Rosie (the flower child) St. Clair to grow up having many of the same strengths and ideals that are so deeply ingrained in her father. Jack writes a song for his newborn daughter called, Saving the Day. Jack and Julie Red Rose go out in the world with the sole purpose of helping at least one person that day.

Jack has become a leading AIDS activist attending many benefits. At one of the functions he becomes friendly with Elizabeth Taylor and Berry Berenson Perkins, wife of actor Anthony Perkins who had contracted the AIDS virus. Chet gets sicker and sicker, eventually dying in Jack’s arms. His old friend leaves him with advice that Jack will need later in life. Jack takes Chet’s remains out on The Serenity Prayer, a beautiful 38’ sailboat left to him by Joel Simmons. Jack knows Chet will always be with him in spirit. Chet later appears to Jack in a dream which helps Jack in his time of crisis.

 

Unbeknownst to him, Jack’s lost love Diane has had their baby in Paris, France. Emma du Barry is a bright young girl, and Diane raises her alone, with the help of her employer Dr. Marco Falerne. Dr. Falerne is in love with

Madame du Barry but her heart will always belong to Jack. As Emma grows, Diane writes letters to Jack describing their child, but she is not able to send them. Like her stepfather, Dr. Falerne, Emma goes into medicine. Aided financially by Dr. Falerne, the young girl attends Boston University, becoming a doctor of medicine Mother and daughter have moved to Boston where Emma goes to work at one of the Free Clinics in a poor Boston neighborhood. Now back in the States and alone, Diane turns to her Catholic religion and charity work.

 

With Emma gone Diane becomes severely depressed eventually returning to her old religion for solace. Diane still sends her letters to Delo, who reads them and logs them into his computer. Jack has also been mailing his

journals to Delo’s unknown lake house. Delo now has both sets of letters.