Prodigal son Duddy Doogan has a promise to keep. He is going home, to a place where his eccentric storytelling kin await his first visit since his daddy went missing two years ago. Home to where a powerful river carves an age-old border between Florida and Alabama, dividing the land and people living there. Home to a family tree moss-draped with secrets and lies, forgotten memories, and old mysteries buried in its roots. Haunted by the trauma of a childhood accident he can't remember, Duddy must excavate the bones of his twisted family history to put his broken life back together. But when tragedy strikes, a promise to return home suddenly becomes a dangerous quest to reclaim his father's remains from a long-lost uncle living deep in the Alabama swampland. For Duddy Doogan, a journey into the heart of darkness will lead him to a shattering revelation about his traumatic past, a secret truth hiding in plain sight and powerful enough to alter the course of Perdido River history for generations to come.
DISCLAIMER: This book is Rated-R for adult language, adult situations, adult humor, adult themes, drug and alcohol use, mild violence, and mild sexuality.
PERDIDO RIVER BASTARD: The Saga of a Multiracial Southern Family's Secrets and Legacy of Love
Note from the Author:
I’m excited about my Southern fiction novel, Perdido River Bastard, a multi-generational, romantic mystery about myth and sin, memory and history, secrets and lies, family life and death, magic and illusion, rebirth and redemption, good and evil—the sublime beauty I call the Deep South. Inherent themes of race, prejudice, and bigotry kinda go with the territory, but this novel isn’t about inciting revolution or calling for imposed societal atonement for past transgressions. It isn’t about blaming others for things they can’t possibly help, like the color of skin, the sins of fathers and mothers, or the broken pasts of their children. Simply put, this story is about finding love through forgiveness, a notion worthy of discussion to my mind, as it seems to be the one that people conveniently forget, easily ignore, and readily dismiss for being too quaint, too simple, or too idealistic. Personally, I think we all could use a little idealism in these current racially divisive times. What we're doing right now isn't working well for any of us, so my novel suggests a wholly different tactic to affect change, one espoused by few truly Great Leaders, one being a preacher from Alabama who died for a simple dream that has yet to come true.
This novel is close kin to other kinds of Southern fiction I've enjoyed reading over the years - a completed jigsaw puzzle that's more than the sum of its parts. It's a fictional biography, a romance, a series of vignettes, an interracial love story, a son's quest to make peace with his missing father, and a cozy mystery about generations of powerful women, contemporary and otherwise, who haunt one man's life.
D. B. Patterson writes contemporary fiction for adults, as well as fantasy and adventure fiction for teens and kids. Patterson's short works have been published in Elephants & Other Gods, Ramble Underground, Shalla Magazine, Larks Fiction Magazine, and Cerulean Rain. Books for young readers include The Christmas Witchling and Little Tiger and the Dragon King of Beijing. Illustrated books for early readers include four top-selling Lamby Lambpants storybook adventures and one coloring book.
Mr. Patterson's myriad literary influences include the writings of Toni Morrison, Flannery O'Connor, Pat Conroy, John Irving, Dorothy Allison, Harper Lee, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Paulo Coelho, John Jakes, Margaret Mitchell, Carson McCullers, J.D. Salinger, Joseph Campbell, Shakespeare, and Stephen King.
In addition to writing, D. B. Patterson is also a musician, a vocal and artistic mechanic, a classically-trained actor (he performed at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, for example), a sometime-puppeteer, a digital graphic designer, an illustrator, the co-founder of a toy company, and the 1995 1st Runner-up National Karaoke Champion (don’t tell anyone). He is married and currently lives in Tarpon Springs, Florida, with his wife and business partner Tina.
About his first novel, Patterson says:
"Nearly everything I wanted to say about being Southern you can find in this book, but in the end, I think I bit off more than I could chew. Family trees of fictional characters aren't easy. That's not to say I don't like the end result -- on the contrary, it's the best artistic thing I've done up to this point in my life. Still, I would've liked to have had more time to tidy up one or two of the story's plot points -- I reluctantly glossed over them in order to meet deadline. Plus, I focused all my energy on the final chapter, which serves the entire narrative structure better than even I expected. It's a near-perfect bookend, and I'd be surprised if readers don't feel the simple power of the conclusion, which more than makes up for my shoddy bits of plot construction."
