Lou Harris

Banjo Boy Lou Harris

"You want to shake the hand that shook the hand of Harry Truman? Is that your game?" Those were the hostile words that greeted Ben Levin, an aspiring writer eager to craft a novel that spanned Banjo Boy's one hundred years. Reluctantly, the old man revealed his history that began in extreme poverty at the coal mines of West Virginia, now nearing its end in an ultra-luxury condo overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He fought poverty in childhood, criminals on occasion, Japanese in World War II. The results of events were often rewarding, sometimes tragic, never by choice. After Banjo Boy agreed to be interviewed, his opening statement knocked the air right out of Ben Levin, a young man who had been sheltered from hardship. "I killed my Ma coming into this world and my Pa thirteen and a half years later. Ha little choice in the matter."