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Al Lucas
This is the original 1st person version called High Steppin' off da Crack, first submitted as a 3rd person account under the name of simply Hi' Steppin' years ago. This 1st person version is more i...view moreThis is the original 1st person version called High Steppin' off da Crack, first submitted as a 3rd person account under the name of simply Hi' Steppin' years ago. This 1st person version is more in keeping with an autobiographical style while still using fictional names as characters and was created before the 3rd person version, but lost, only to be found later after the 3rd person publication. It opens with an emaciated man standing on the day of 9/11 in the VA lobby, awaiting hospitalization for crack usage. One bizarre incident after another occurs leaving his sanity no longer in question. Being a Vietnam-era vet, he is screened and then followed up by two psychiatrists of Oriental persuasion who treat him rather realistically, to his chagrin. He is discharged with a nursing plan to attend Avon Park, a renowned dual diagnosis center in Sebring, FL, but first must go to SafePlace, a transitional housing facility in Tampa to protect him from the dealers while he awaits an opening in Avon. First, however, Paul decides to go home and have one more bout with crack, to get the high he never had, using his car as leverage. It doesn't work out so well. He thus attends SafePlace without a car. It should be noted, he has read to one of the psychiatrists his ongoing novel and continues to read or have read to any and all its contents. One person, a roommate, at SafePlace is so moved, he blows his brains out. At Avon, he is assigned a class coordinator, Manfred Mundane, an ex-military pilot, who is unsympathetic about Paul's writing skills. Getting kicked out for bumming cigarettes, Paul comes home with new verve. He will in fact attend AA and does. He fights his way out of bankruptcy and foreclosure blindly with no help from family or friends and miraculously incurs twelve years of clean time. The book ends with a surprise, reserved for the reader. It should also be noted, the narrative weaves between Paul's acid days in Morocco and his current plight. His journal is in the past tense; the book's outcome, in the present with both coming to an end in Paul's bedroom where reality merges in a sexual farce.view less
Books by Al Lucas
The Last Step: The Trite World of Paul Undres, A Final Expose Mister Bon Mot and the Meaning of Wife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe First Step, Hi' Steppin' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Second Step, Lo' Steppin': The Isometrics of Welfare and Power of Losing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe First Step: Hi' Steppin': The Isometrics of Isolation and Power of Depression Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Third Step: Quitting, a Smoking Gun with Coughing Nails, a Real Read Herring: The Isometrics of Tobacco and Power of Nonsense Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMojo and the Mind: With a Touch of Putin Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Midterms Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAl Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Third Step - The Smoking Gun and the Coughing Nails, a Real Read Herring: The Isometrics of Tobacco and Power of Nonsense Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fourth Step, A Dream Amidst the Chaos: The Isometrics of Thought and Power of Projection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings