A story that commences in 1939 with a young child and ends in 1955 is the premise of the second novel by 74-year-old Mark Lichterman, a professional chimney sweep who also writes novels.
"Becoming" is a novel that will remind many of us of ourselves, way back when God's most mysterious creation was the opposite sex, says Lichterman.
It's a story "about life, and the often funny, often sad, day-to-day things that stir the memories of our lives," he says. "Remember when, as a people, we loved America and showed it? Then you might be ready for a nostalgic, funny, romantic, sexually frustrating novel."
The tale begins with young Mitchie in an ethnically diverse neighborhood on the west side of Chicago.
Lichterman guides the reader through Mitchie's formative years, when at age 16 he lies about his age and joins the National Guard, "'cause girls dig guys in uniform."
Soon getting caught up in the war in Korea, Mitchell's life unfolds in a series of nostalgic, comical, romantic, sad and funny sexual situations.
The story ends when Mitchell turns 21. And, just as in real life, the growth of the youth we see every day is so gradual that we do not notice the changes in them, so it is with Mitchell.
Local Chicago readers empathize with Mitchell and his growing pains.
"You just know that the author either lived next door or maybe on the next block, 'cause that's the way things were growing up in the late '30s, '40s and into the '50s," said David Wilkins of Newbury Park.
"There was no TV showing things or a computer to Google what a boy needs to know â€" it was just day-to-day wonderment and exasperation to face," Wilkins said. "The story was so close to my younger years that I started to bet myself that he would add other happenings of my life, and he sometimes did."
Bonnie Northcott of Westlake Village said Lichterman has a way of "making you feel everything his characters are going through... I wish this had been published when I was growing up, when times were much less threatening."
"Becoming" is also about growing up, and learning about how boys and girls come to terms with each other, said D.V. Cunningham of Westlake Village.
"But it's also accepting that your parents are human," Cunningham said. "These subjects will persevere until the end of time. Mark is very adept at revealing to women how their husbands and sons think. And it's nice to know that they are just as scared and inquisitive about us as we are about them."
Lichterman says he was inspired to write "Becoming" after he completed his first book, "The Climbing Boy." "I found that I really enjoyed writing... one word led to another and more than 22 years and 293,718 words later, not counting four complete rewrites, we have what I call semi-fiction, or faction."
He hopes that his work will inspire "the recall of youth, the remembrance of what so many of us forget over time."
About the Author
Mark Lichterman is the author of Becoming, a novel about coming of age. It is set in Chicago but is universal in the issues it deals with. Find out more here => http://kale.110mb.com/Becoming/index.htm
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