In the next to last scene in "Casablanca," Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains are about to drink from a bottle of 1942 Vichy Water. One of the bottles used in filming the scene appears years later in a California antique store, where Elvin Stone buys it and promises that only a special occasion would make him open the bottle.
Alex Zari, Egyptian and Elvin Stone meet in 1960 in a vacant lot as Newark high school students and become life long exceptional friends. Exceptional means trust, sharing life and spirituality, pulled from the author's experiences with angelic intervention and clairvoyance. Alex’s haunting visions tell of becoming more than friends.
Elvin attends Rutgers University while Alex studies astronomy and joins a discussion group at Princeton University where he's groomed to slide into a secret organization and government security clearance. Eventually, Alex lands in the Situation Room of the White House with potentially unsettling news for the President.
Life abruptly changes. Clandestine government meetings, murders, and a plane crash follow. Overcome by change and great loss, Elvin searches self in Sedona, Arizona, Guadalcanal, Montana, Key Largo, Vietnam War Memorials, Guadeloupe, and a Chicago African-American cemetery where Emmett Till is buried. Elvin marries twice, changes career to sales, has an affair with the daughter of a European businessman and when morality is confronted, ponders the Virtue of Selfishness. The story twists through the universe, parallel worlds, women's perspectives, racism, tech noir movies, environment and a college bar.
WHO, WHY READ 'VICHY WATER' ?
MUSLIM, CATHOLIC,COPTIC CHRISTIAN, JEWISH:
President Obama gave a speech in Egypt at the beginning of June, 2009 stating how America looks to the Muslim world with understanding and respect, which is exactly how 'Vichy Water' presents its diverse religious characters.
WOMEN'S ISSUES:
Strong, but subtle, cerebral references to women's issues/perspectives. Perhaps a challenge is now issued to discover intent, content and relevancy.
AFRICAN-AMERICANS:
A sensitive view of their world as seen through the eyes of two white teenagers beginning in 1960 Newark, New Jersey.
BABY BOOMERS:
From pinball to From Here to Eternity to 60's innocent sexual conquests (interpretative), tech-noir movies, a real milk man and a coal bin in the cellar (do boomers go back that far?)
FATHERHOOD:
Poignant descriptions of a son and father and repeated kissing of a cranial soft spot.
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND ALUMNI:
Campuses are used for many scenes. A main character is an alumnus as is the author.
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ALUMNI:
Main characters are alumni.
ENVIRONMENTALISTS:
Powerful continuous references to environmental warnings, global warming, clean water and certain American companies' failures. Author likes shock approach.
SPIRITUALISTS:
Spiritual references, angelic intervention presented from first hand experience.
LAWMAKERS:
Provocative issues discussed; perhaps creating a heightened awareness on equal justice initiative, environmental justice and consumerism.
EYE CARE PROFESSIONALS (THE THREE 0'S)
It's not everyday when one of your own writes a novel. The author has sold eyewear as a rep for the past twenty-eight years.
WEEQUAHIC HIGH SCHOOL, MAPLE AVENUE SCHOOL ALUMNI, MAPLEWOOD AND NEWARK, NEW JERSEY:
With such active alumni, need we say more?
SEDONA, ARIZONA:
Thoughts, action and memories take trans-continental journeys to Sedona's vortex and spirit. Might really spur tourism if that's what you asked for.
TUNA FISH PURVEYORS:
The food is talked about (one recipe alluded to) right up to the last mercury laden tuna catch in perhaps twenty years.