Minding Boodles

This is an adventure with its roots planted in the waning months of World War II Germany, and it finds its last vine winding down in a quiet, rural California university town some 40 years after the end of the war. Kelly: The brilliant, yet fiery, female college athlete struggles with her sexual identity and faith in the era before openness, acceptance, and equality. Heidi: The ambitious girl from a rough and under-privileged background fights to improve her life, but ends up in a...
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This is an adventure with its roots planted in the waning months of World War II Germany, and it finds its last vine winding down in a quiet, rural California university town some 40 years after the end of the war. Kelly: The brilliant, yet fiery, female college athlete struggles with her sexual identity and faith in the era before openness, acceptance, and equality. Heidi: The ambitious girl from a rough and under-privileged background fights to improve her life, but ends up in a battle with drug abuse which threatens to end her dreams...if not her life. Hans: Cool, aloof, amoral and trying to run his life quietly and comfortably without getting close to anyone who might discover his amazingly intriguing secret: a secret stretching back to long before he was born. Boodles: The brindle cat who observed it all. This unlikeliest tale takes us throughout Western Europe, and peeks behind the Iron Curtain, as well as apartheid-era South Africa and its neighbors. It also introduces us to many unique secondary characters: A mother who cares almost too much but can't face a truth that flies in the face of her religious beliefs, a father with a heart of gold, an aging Nazi officer in The ODESSA, and a pragmatic grandfather who set the entire six year misadventure into motion. Countless other intriguing individuals weave themselves repeatedly into the tapestry of this bizarre saga. Pitched battles and violence on soccer fields, cerebral tactical battles on tennis courts, Champagne, cocaine and lots of Beck's Beer, a quiet road-trip in rural France, fake documents, and envelopes stuffed with cash await you if you dare to imagine any of this could possibly have happened. Political and cultural events lead the reader, like a trail of bread crumbs through the forest, as this saga plays out against the background of history. Don't look for morality in this tale: There is far more weakness, evil, jealousy and self-serving, but nobody lacks moments when they don't strive to do something good. There is also no lack of sex, drugs, booze and the great music of the 1980's.P. Kevin Dirksen lives a quiet life hidden in plain sight.