Orchestra Left, Row T - Softcover

Constein, Carl Frey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0759611556 ISBN 13: 9780759611559

Publisher: AuthorHouse, 2001

Synopsis

Mark Sperling is a senior at Princeton, a youth of great promise. World War II breaks out. He enlists in the Army Air Corps, becomes a pilot, and is sent to India to fly supplies to China over the Himalayan "Hump." His plane crashes. Two crewmen are killed and he is seriously injured, losing a foot. Discharged from the service, he returns home a bitter, broken man, weighed down by shame and guilt. He becomes a drunk and a womanizer, disgusting the townspeople, and accumulating as many enemies as lovers. Redemption begins when Sperling meets the right woman. But when his betrothed becomes secretive about her past, his depression returns. He seeks solace in his lifelong passion for opera. At a matinee performance of Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, one bleak December Saturday, his checkered past and his tormented present come together in a surprising ending. The novel is set in the northwestern New Jersey and the Lehigh Valley of eastern Pennsylvania.

About this title

About the Author

Carl Frey Constein, born into what Tom Brokaw has dubbed The Greatest Generation grew up in the eastern Pennsylvania town of Fleetwood during the Great Depression of the 1930s. After college, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. For his ninety-six round-trip flights as pilot across the Himalayan "Hump"; from India to China, Lt. Constein was awarded two Air Medals and the distinguished Flying Cross. He recalled his year in the CBI in his WW II memoir, Born to Fly the Hump published by 1stbooks Library. After he left military service, he pursued a doctorate at Temple University, majoring in English and educational administration. He was a teacher of English, curriculum director, superintendent of schools, and education writer and columnist. Constein lives outside Reading in Berks County, Pennsylvania. He enjoys music and the performing arts, travel, tennis, bridge, and golf.

Edition details

• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0759611556
• ISBN 13: 9780759611559
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208