Frank Drury

Colored Floodlights Frank Drury

This new novel tells the story of a veteran returning home from the war. After serving three tours in Afghanistan, Roy Calhoun, whose mind now often works on a sixth-grade level, comes home to Jacksonville, Florida to try and live a normal life, which is difficult to do with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is fortunate enough to be introduced to a psychologist named Parker Boyce, who not only treats him with therapy but befriends him as well. He takes Roy into his upscale home in an affluent neighborhood of the 1% and treats him like he is a part of the family, even hiring him as caretaker and helping him start classes at the local community college. Parker Boyce's wife has a younger sister, Roberta, who comes to visit and a romance begins to develop between Roberta and Roy. She convinces him to attend some of the Occupy Wall Street protests that are going on in major cities all over the country. With help from his Xanax prescription, Roy attends rallies with Roberta, although he never really seems to understand the 1% vs. 99% confrontations that take place. He spends very little time having Afghanistan flashbacks and is able to function well with therapy and medicine, until a moment comes one day when he loses control and shows a side of himself he has tried to keep hidden.