The Woodstock Paradigm - Paperback

by Edward Andrew DeVito (Author)

For the second time in his life, seventeen year-old Arien Danner finds himself in another era, only now ripped from a world, an adapted family of free people, and a girl he had truly come to love. 2012 is not at all like 1969. Bethel, New York now lies buried under a blanket of winter, and the legendary Rock concert there has been over for decades. Only the devotion of an old man who waited forty-three years, and the company of a dog stand between Arien and death in the snow. Arien's subsequent adventure takes him on a treacherous hitchhike to Oregon, seeking a grandmother who was once the girl he loved while evading a determined colonel in Army Intelligence who would have him before anyone else.

Author Biography

Edward DeVito grew up on Staten Island, New York, and attended college at RPI/VCU in Richmond, Virginia from 1966-1969. His favorite studies were in English, History and Creative Writing, and he briefly served in the student congress. Love and identity issues in 1968 drove Edward to a period of experimentation that finally, serendipitously, and fortunately uncovered profound depth and significance in a visionary, transformative experience that flavors his outlook down to the present day, and is evident in his novels. As often happens, Edward's first novel, THE WOODSTOCK PARADOX is variously biographical, with many of the events and characters in it drawn from life in his early, seeker years; finding his way across the broad length of America, in Edward's case, Greenwich Village to Berkeley, Honolulu to the Haight, Vermont to Arizona, to Key West, again Arizona, and ultimately his beloved Oregon. He has said some of the scenes in the story were toned down from what actually occurred in order to maintain fictional integrity. THE WOODSTOCK PARADIGM is a sequel that takes some risks. It is so unlike the first book. It is less historical, perhaps more political, fanciful, though darker, and definitely confrontational to contemporary times. Just how does a troubled young protagonist from 1990, who has found both meaning and love in 1969, contend with the present day, especially with his secret known to the objectively invasive and entitled 'national security' apparatus? Edward finds an alternative in the surprise ending, taking another look at the visionary and affirmative post-dystopian possibilities of a far-distant future.