Three Short Tales of Maxwell Monk from the Holey Grail — Dennis Latham

Holey Grail is about Maxwell Monk, who was almost named Chip, beginning ten years after his service in Vietnam as a Marine and ending twenty years after the war. Max can't live his father's post WW2 Holy Grail beliefs that a job with benefits and a home is the American Dream. He wants more, but will find getting past the war in a society that pretty much ignored its warriors is something hard to accept. The three stories in this excerpt cover different time periods in Maxwell Monk's life. Finding The Devil is about the nightmare of being raised as a dirty sinner Italian Catholic at St. Boniface in the 1950s. Helmet is about his first days as a Marine in Vietnam, and Crusader takes place years after the war when he lives with Pinto Goshorn, another Marine from his squad. These stories will be combined with additional chapters to form the complete novel.