A lifetime of plans and dreams are packed into a container and shipped from Los Angeles to a Caribbean island; but for a writer and immigrant from post-WWII Europe, the past is hard to forget and even harder to leave behind.
Passage From England is the emotional journey of a man’s search for home that interweaves the adventures and tragedies of his childhood in America’s 50s and 60s with the experiences of early retirement in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The journey begins in 1956, crossing the Atlantic by ocean liner, arriving in New York Harbor, then traveling by train to the paper-thin suburbs of Tarzana, California. Peddling as fast as he can to keep up with the neighborhood kids and culture of Boomer America, the child struggles against his father’s alcoholism and growing violence, determined to find a way to belong in a world where the tanned, carefree girls from the affluent foothills seem just out of reach in the rock ‘n roll moonlight of adolescence.
Told from two points of view spanning five decades, the multiple journeys of the child and the adult enrich one another, providing an understanding of the demons that pursued the family, and uncovering the spirit of endurance that was fostered within him.
FRANK ZAJACZKOWSKI was born in Lincoln, England in 1950 and divides his time between Los Angeles and St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. He is married and has two children. He has previously written a novel (High Pocket), a libretto for classical opera (Ode To Phaedra), as well as a number of screenplays. This is his first memoir.
It’s a terrific read! The story is intriguing, pulling us along the incredible, wonderful…funny, yet always heartrending journey through your life. Congratulations! –
