Skerries and 1460 Days

About the Book

There are two main characters: H.P. an author and professor at Trinity College Dublin, unmarried. Lee who is recently divorced with two daughters. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lee has no father. When he was young his mother told him that his father was killed in WWII. Lee’s mother is hit by a car and killed. She leaves their house and her real estate business to Lee who has just finished high school. While looking around his mother’s bedroom he notices a locked box in her closet. He finds a book in the box called “Skerries” written by H.P.. A dedication in the book is to Lee’s mother and dated August 19, 1939 which is exactly nine months before Lee was born. The book jacket explains that H.P. is an English Professor and Poet at Trinity College Dublin. After college in California, marriage and then divorce, Lee decides to go to Dublin. Eventually, Lee tracks down H.P. but it is too late. H.P. has died. “Skerries” ends as Lee leaves H.P.’s wake. “1460 Days Phil Greevey has just finished high school. He and a buddy enlist in the Air Force. It is July, 1958. They arrive for Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base. 1460 days to go. Phil is picked by the Tactical Instructor to wear temporary Staff Sergeant stripes and to be in charge of the Flight when the T.I. is not there. Phil has applied to the Air Force Academy so he is “gung-ho”; too much so for his Flight. After Basic Training Phil is sent to Administrative Clerk School at Amarillo Air Force Base. When his training is completed he is held back pending resolution of his application to the Air Force Academy. His permanent assignment is to the Command Post at Vandenburg Air Force Base, California. Phil is entirely ignorant of women. The secretary at the CP is Betsy, Aunt Betsy, as he calls her. Phil manages to buy his dream car a 1958 MGA from Major Riley with credit from the Base Credit Union. Aunt Betsy and Phil become lovers. Over time Phil becomes involved with several young women including Sheila who pushes Phil to live off-Base in Santa Maria. Phil finds it hard to say no despite his misgivings. In order to extricate himself he persuades Sheila to go home to Upstate New York to patch things up with her parents. His rationale is that then tthey will be clear to marry... Sheila reluctantly agrees and while she is gone Phil writes her a letter breaking up with her. Sheila responds menacingly. Phil is now working as a Clerk in the Headquarters of the 1ST Missile Division. He meets Neva there. She is married. They start an affair. Colonel Evdokimoff is Phil’s superior officer. He tells Phil that Sheila is back and that she has moved in with him. The 1460 days are down to one. Phil has been accepted at UC Berkeley. Neva is distraught. Phil has his first class. He meets Rose. The world seems super-fine. But then Neva arrives having left her husband. Phil does not know what to do.

About the Author

I’m a mathematician, retired from the University of Massachusetts Boston. I’m married with three children. I’m a reader currently reading Tolstoy’s “Kreutzer Sonata” and other short stories; and Turgenev’s “A Sportsman’s Sketches”. I enjoy opera and classical music. A Fall and Winter favorite is the Metropolitan Opera on Harvard Radio. I’m also a gym rat working out currently at the Huntington Avenue YMCA in Boston. I’m addicted to cafes and espresso.