A Pearl for Kizzy: A World War II Novel - Paperback

by Ed Bethune (Author)

Kizzy, a spirited child, lives with her family on a one-room ramshackle houseboat in Big Pearl, Arkansas. They fish, dig for mussels, look for pearls, and sell the shells to the button factory. It is a crude life made harder by the Great Depression, natural disasters, and prejudice. At the onset of World War II, Kizzy befriends a young boy-a refugee from Nazi Germany-and a cultured young woman who encourages her to read and learn from Jane Austen's books. Kizzy yearns for a better life, but as she comes of age her dream of getting off the river is threatened by the evil Bully Bigshot and his Eugenics Center, a corrupt outfit that wants to rid the world of "river rats" like her through abortion and "better breeding." ... And there is Cormac, the lascivious man Kizzy calls her "make-do stepfather." Kizzy's struggle mimics today's culture war. Daring, but realistic, the novel examines love, pride, compassion, courage, hope, morality, and duty-the things that inform and shape our destiny.

Author Biography

Ed Bethune grew up in Arkansas and joined the Marines when he was eighteen years old. He rose to the rank of sergeant. When his enlistment ended, he earned a B.S.B.A. and a Juris Doctorate from the School of Law at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Ed Bethune has a deep understanding of American culture. He was a special agent of the FBI in Newark, NJ, during the race riots of 1967. In 1970 he became a prosecuting attorney in Arkansas and led a complete revision of Arkansas' rules of criminal procedure. As a trial lawyer he prosecuted and defended many important cases. In 1978, against all odds, he won a seat in the United States House of Representatives, the first Republican to hold that seat in 104 years. He served three terms in Congress. In 1990, Ed and his wife, Lana, attempted to sail their 31-foot sailboat across the Atlantic Ocean. On their sixth day at sea, they encountered a fierce storm with 30-foot waves that led to a harrowing rescue by the U. S. Coast Guard. In 2011 Bethune wrote his memoir: Jackhammered, a Life of Adventure, and in 2014 he finished the novel, Gay Panic in the Ozarks. His third book, A Pearl for Kizzy, is a novel set on the Black River in Arkansas during World War II, Ed and Lana have two children and eight granddaughters. They reside in Little Rock, Arkansas.