The Standard Grand: A Novel

Synopsis

When An Army Trucker Goes Awol Before Her Third Deployment, She Ends Up Sleeping In Central Park. There, She Meets A Vietnam Vet And Widower Who Inherited A Tumbledown Borscht Belt Resort. Converted Into A Halfway House For Homeless Veterans, The Standard--and Its Two Thousand Acres Over The Marcellus Shale Formation--is Coveted By A Houston-based Multinational Company. Toward What End, Only A Corporate Executive Knows. With Three Violent Acts At Its Center--a Mauling, A Shooting, A Mysterious Death Decades In The Past--and Set Largely In The Catskills, The Standard Grand Spans An Epic Year In The Lives Of Its Diverse Cast: A Female Veteran Protagonist, A Mesoamerican Lesbian Landman, A Mercenary Security Contractor Keeping Secrets And Seeking Answers, A Conspiratorial Gang Of Combat Vets Fighting To Get Peaceably By, And A Cougar--along With Appearances By Sammy Davis, Jr. And Senator Al Franken. All Of The Characters--soldiers, Civilians--struggle To Discover That What Matters Most Is Not That They've Caused No Harm, But How They Make Amends For The Harm They've Caused...-- Jay Baron Nicorvo.