In this meditation on identity and selfhood, loss and change, the real and the counterfeit, George Dzul tells the very real but often unbelievable story of a man's life that begins in 1939 and is still very much in process in 1999.
An infant boy loses his mother, his past, and his heritage. Seemingly without direction, he drifts from rescue to adoption agency to a wealthy family in Michigan - and from there to life as a playboy, a forger, a wanderer, and an owner of a company that cleanses what has been made unclean.
His adventures, which are both sexual and personal, investigate the nature of family and the mystery of appearances. The picaresque and the profane are equally likely and equally phantasmagoric as narrated by George Dzul, a gifted new author.
Review: "Throughout this book I felt myself awe-struck by his masterful handling of rhythm and time...George Dzul has demonstrated a capacity to narrate the passage of life through timewith the graceful virtuosity of an orchestral composer."
-Ed Levitch, author of From Beginning to Beginning
"Crossing Years is a kaleidoscopic tapestry woven to tell a sixty-year tale of love, loss and identity. Thread by lovely thread, scene by scene, George Dzul weaves us into his unforgettable fictional world."
-Alyson Hagy, University of Wyoming, Department of English
"I found it absorbing and was very moved by it...very novel and ultimately poetic...a modern Odyssey of its own kind."
-Anna Muza, University of California, Berkeley
"An interesting work both interms of its narrative exposition and the history and personal lives that it represents."
-Robert DeLossa, Harvard University
"This fiction is real, with streaks of cruelty, of compassion, of love, and longing...it is almost impossible to put down. Running through the work is an emotionless cruelty that sets the teeth on edge and causes them to grind and chatter."
-Daniel Panger, author of The Dance of the Wild Mouse, Hard Times and Decameron 2002
Bio: GEORGE DZUL lives and works in Northern California. He has been an immigration attorney since 1984. His fist novel won the Hopwood Literary Award from the University of Michigan.
