INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR JOHN BREWER - JOURNEY OF A PATRIOT
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JOURNEY OF A PATRIOT
by John Brewer
Chris Williams, from a conservative, middle-class family, graduates from
medical school in 1970, at a time when his values are being attacked. His
engagement breaks up because of this. He is sent to Vietnam as an Army doctor.
One day his field hospital is attacked by the Viet Cong. Forced to defend his
life and that of the patients and other medical workers, he picks up a gun from
a fallen soldier and shoots to stop the attack. This action was seized upon by
the liberal press and totally misrepresented back in the States. The Army
pulled him off duty and sent him to Texas to disappear. He decides to take a
job on night shift at a hospital in east LA, far from where he had his
internship in St. Louis, hoping no one would recognize him from the papers.
Hitch hiking there proved dangerous. Chris settled in as an ER doctor and found
that he loved the variety and challenges. Eventually he is discovered and
stalked while returning to his apartment by a quartet of young punks. To avoid
publicity, he doesn’t report the incident to the police. Instead, he waits
until one night he sees their van parked outside the hospital with four joints
glowing in the dark. He phones the cops and they make the arrest for possession
with intent to distribute. Out on bond, they attack. His ROTC training proves
handy. He falls in love with a patient, and after he marries her, his wife
secretly betrays him. He starts climbing the administration ladder at the
hospital. Years later, when politics changed, the Army called him back to
finish his stint of duty in West Germany. Upon his return, he discovers his
wife in bed with her lover. Will he ever find true love?