BYRON: Coming of Age Novel Challenges Religious Intolerance

As the author of BYRON, I live in Southern California with my wife and two children and our pets. My novels due for future publication focus on family relationships and address the nature and importance of personal integrity.

CLICK ON THE AMAZON.COM LINK TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BYRON AND SEARCH INSIDE THE BOOK.

Byron: A Dramatic Novel About Teaching Evolution In The Classroom

Romantically named after an English poet, Byron Mackenzie is a smart young girl who distresses her mother with her Tomboy ways. When not in school, she explores swamps and collects frogs, snakes, and insects. In her southern mill town, being less-than-feminine makes her different, but associating with the “wrong” friends gets her into trouble and nearly costs her life. Robert M. Tucker pens a dramatic novel about a young girl from a backwater town and the traumatic events that usher her into the dark realities of adulthood and the outside world. BYRON is filled with colorful characters and rich cultural textures that resonate with contemporary issues of gender, race, and religion.

BYRON is narrated by an older main character who has just graduated from Harvard University with a degree in molecular biology. Byron Mackenzie recalls events from her childhood in a small town in Louisiana during the social and political turmoil of the sixties. She remembers the people that would influence her future and her quest for truth and integrity: her wonderful grandfather, a Scottish migrant, who takes her to the shanty town saloon and introduces her to his secret Black friends; her childhood friend, Josine Carrie, who is sexually abused by her own father and gives birth to a child; her best friend, Aristophanes Jones, an African American boy raised by a single mother; her junior high school teacher, Timothy Maher, who teaches Byron about racial and religious tolerance and pays the ultimate price for his convictions; Touissant McIvor, a Cajun trapper and hunter; and Madam Josephine, a manbo or voodoo priestess, who both dwell deep in the wilderness swamp and help Byron overcome the death of her favorite teacher.

BYRON mirrors a society impaired by bigotry where a local redneck gang harasses and endangers an African American boy and his white friend and where civic authorities abuse their power to further their own beliefs and interests. But above all, this novel is about a young girl who suffers and fights for integrity and truth. Through her will to survive, Byron emerges a hero against the man who would kill her in the face of devastating racism and violence. Her story is a testimonial to the indomitable human spirit.

About the Author

Robert M. Tucker is a business and management consultant with companies in a wide range of industries throughout the country. He resides in southern California with his wife and two children and their pets. He is a recipient of the Samuel Goldwyn and Donald Davis Literary Awards. His novels due for future publication also focus on family relationships and address the nature and importance of personal integrity in society.

BYRON * By Robert M. Tucker

Trade Paperback; $17.99; 377 pages; 1-4134-6297-9 *

Cloth Hardback; $24.99; 377 pages; 1-4134-6298-7

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The major conflict in BYRON arises from the issue of teaching evolution vs. creationism or intelligent design in the science classroom.

If you are interested in the controversy regarding the teaching of evolution vs. creationism or intelligent design in the classroom, visit the National Center for Science Education at the following link:

Future comments by book clubs and readers of BYRON and updates about the book, eg. potential for motion picture, may appear in this section.

Topics For Discussion For The Reader, Book Clubs, and Reading Groups

Contact the author to arrange for a live internet exchange or a teleconference with your book club.

rtucker@earthlink.net

(Suggestion to the reader: Do not try to determine what the author intended in writing BYRON.   More importantly, what do the characters and events in the story mean to you?)

1.                   How many different kinds of discrimination can you identify in the novel?

2.                   How does Byron respond to discrimination?

3.                   What does Byron believe in? What are her values?

4.                   What are your personal values? How do they relate to, compare, or contrast with Byron’s values?

5.                   What kinds of discrimination have you experienced in your life? (Gender, Spouse, Parental, Family, Friends, Job, Ethnic, Education, Employment, Age, Hotels, Restaurants, Transportation.) Did you consider yourself a victim?

6.                   What role does human intelligence play in the book?

7.                   What are the major conflicts?

8.                   How is intolerance presented? Through what characters?

9.                   What in your life and relationships do you not tolerate?

10.               Are intolerance and prejudice the same in the book?

11.               Does Byron herself have any prejudices?

12.               What does she not tolerate?

13.               How are the concepts of evolution and religious faith reconciled in the book? Can they be reconciled in your opinion? If not, why not?

14.               What natural forces or natural laws are depicted in the story?

15.               How do they compare or contrast with manmade laws and the legal system?

16.               How is superstition presented in the story? In what scenes and through what characters?

17.               How many different religions can you identify in the story?

18.               What is the relationship between superstition and religious ritual in the book? Between superstition and religious faith? Superstition and cult behavior? Religion and cult behavior?

19.               What superstitions do you experience in your life?

20.               Where do they come from? How are they communicated?

21.               What is happening in the world today regarding religious and political conflict that parallels what happens in the book?

22.               How do these world events affect your life?

23.               How important is food in the story? In what ways? In what scenes?

24.               How does the physical setting or milieu influence the characters?

25.               How important is music in the story? In what ways? In what scenes?

26.               What is the social and cultural importance of food and music in your life?

27.               What role does the media play in the book? How do the characters react to the media? In what scenes?

28.               What influence does the media have on your life? How do you react socially, culturally, and emotionally?

29.               What is the role of violence in the story? What causes the expression of violence?

30.               How does violence or potential violence affect you?

31.               How does violence make you feel? How do you react to those feelings in your relationship with others?

32.               What do the characters in the book want or desire from life?

33.               What wants and desires do you have and how do you achieve them? What are the conflicts and barriers you encounter? How do you respond to them?

34.               How would you describe the person Byron becomes? Is she admirable?

35.               How do you describe the person you are?

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