‘Reunion’ novel examines Princeton of the past, broken family bonds

PRINCETON — Life in the real world may begin with high school graduation, but the hardships and hope of childhood stick with us throughout the years.

That idea is among the central theme of James Kennedy George Jr.’s “Reunion,” a deeply personal novel built around a Princeton High School graduate’s return home for a momentous class reunion.

“I think it’s a story on two levels. Obviously, the title literally is based on a high school reunion — the 45th reunion of the Princeton High School Class of 1960. That’s a great opportunity to go back and create the time and place of the day,” George explained during a phone interview this week.

Recreating the scene in Princeton throughout the 1950s and 1960s includes recollections of the close-knit community before the days of big box stores and a mall that drew downtown department stores away from the city. Written into the local nostalgia are bits about classic rock ‘n’ roll, high school shenanigans and the heart break that finds its way into most high school careers.

But “Reunion” doesn’t examine the era through rose-colored glasses. It also traces the social turbulence of integration and the functionality of a dysfunctional relationship between the narrator and the father he never truly understood.

“The more important theme in the book is about a young boy and his relationship with his father, which is probably not too unusual for the time, in the 1950s and 1960s,” George said. “Essentially, the father is distant. He worked all the time and didn’t really do much with his son. He was also an alcoholic, but he was probably what we would call these days a functional alcoholic.”

While George points out that “Reunion” is a work of fiction, he says the story still follows the arc of his life, including his own difficult relationship with his father.

“The question that is central to the book is, ‘Does the son, after the father is gone, live with that as a black cloud over his head for the rest of his life, or does he find a way to deal with what he experienced?’” George said. “In the book, the son spends a lot of years not really dealing with what happened with his father, and he stays all bottled up until he can’t do that anymore. That’s another idea in the book; how do you break the cycle of being bottled up?”

Some of the characters in the book are based on people George has actually met. Others are composites of several personalities or variations on classmates, family members or acquaintances.

That’s part of the beauty of writing a book loosely based on reality but couched in fiction.

“It gives you incredible literary license to do anything you want to do. You can have a character that is based on someone you know, but you can make the character do anything you need to move the story along,” George said.

Set primarily in Princeton and at Pipestem Resort State Park, “Reunion” is George’s first novel, written after a successful career in the semiconductor industry.

“The first version was really sort of monster. It was about 800 pages of white paper, and as I wrote, I just kept making the pile bigger,” the author recalled.

A substantial portion of the Austin, Texas, author’s work was written during visits with family members in Princeton.

“I would guess that I wrote 15 or 20 percent of it in the old Princeton library. I really enjoyed it. It was a nice place to write, and it was quiet,” George said.

Once the first version was complete, however, George realized the need to become a touch typist, so he chose a program and taught himself how to type.

“That was horrible,” he said.

The second version of his novel was simply a typed version of his handwriting. By the time the manuscript reached its 19th version, George decided it was ready for his publisher.

Among the revisions he made during the rewriting process was a change in the perspective of the narrator. The first version was told entirely in third-person. Then, after reading one of his all-time favorite novels, “Angela’s Ashes,” George opted to revise his own novel, turning the narrator into a first-person storyteller.

He also altered the narrator’s voice among various sections of the story.

“When the story begins, the narrator is an adult preparing for his high school reunion. Then, it flips back to when the narrator was in high school. Right away, the vocabulary has to be one of a 14- or 15-year-old in high school,” George said.

“Reunion” is available now from amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com or authorhouse.com.

George will return to Princeton in October for a series of book-signing and meet-and-greet sessions. His first stop is slated for Oct. 4, at Hearthside Bookstore, in Bluefield. On Oct. 5, George will visit Princeton Public Library, also at 2 p.m. Then, on Saturday, Oct. 6, George actually has a high school-related event to attend locally.

He’s eager to come back to the Appalachians.

“I still love the mountains, and they’re every bit as beautiful as I’ve ever know them to be,” George said.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.

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‘Reunion’ novel examines Princeton of the past, broken family bonds

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