James D. Reed

Wongo Flats: a Novel in 7 Parts James D. Reed 1st edition

Labor Day weekend, 1966. Three high school buddies who haven?t seen each other in five years plan a quiet get-together. One is a Navy recruit, another?s a failing entrepreneur, the third?s on the lam from a mobster goon squad. When the three attempt a reunion the result is anything but quiet. First, there?s a brig escape during a driving hurricane. Then a hostage situation involving a stolen Cessna. The entrepreneur?s latest venture is trashed during an insane week-long party. Eventually everyone ends up at a barrier island psychiatric treatment center for prominent loonies suffering from psychosomatic death. Where we witness a wedding celebration with hippies, whores, a stoned priest, and exploding inflatable furniture, After a drug deal gone haywire, a questionable suicide, and a side-trip to darkest Africa, the story culminates in stowaways hidden aboard a pirated Chinese freighter on a transatlantic voyage to the island. The reunion finally takes place at Wongo Flats, an Appalachian hide-out owned by an illiterate recluse who?s just given away a $500,000 fortune to one of the trio?s quadruple-amputee pet cat.