Meet Joseph Kaufman, New Author with French Creek Press

It feels great to offer a good fiction book that looks at who we are: post baby boom, post 60’s, post rebound, post lots of growth. It doesn’t surprise me that our readers, many of a like age, connect with “The Legend of Cosmo and the Archangel”. We all question who we are today, 40 years hence. Do we hold by the ideology that drove us when we were young and on fire? Can we identify that young piece of ourselves in our middle-aged lives? The surprise came from our young readers, the teens and twenties, the immortals, the invincibles. They are the ones on fire! They are grappling with passions that yank them across a spectrum of experiences and emotions. And yet, they identify with the terrible events and choices Cosmo and Nick face in “The Legend of Cosmo and the Archangel”.

A group of tight-knit friends grow up together through high school in a world twisted inside out by a terrible war, accessible, affordable  drugs, great opportunities for education and tremendous drive to change. While all ages have some need to throw off authority, our group comes of age in a time when all authority must be destroyed because it is authority. What happens to someone young and unworldly as he or she steps out into that maelstrom? Who do they become if they survive?

Cosmo leaves the group first as he heads off to Viet Nam, burning with American patriotism. He returns wounded and broken, his best buddy dead, himself a user. Then Woodstock explodes on the scene amidst the rain. For many it is the identifiable point-time of change. College, not-college, travel, poverty and fame follow the young adults. It seems as though everyone is diving off a cliff into the unknown. Cosmo makes his first mistake when he goes AWOL from his hospital bed in search of oblivion from memories of his stay in Viet Nam. Joey’s life turns secretive. Frankie dreams of being Dr. Schweitzer. Dave dreams of the starting lineup on a professional football team and Nick makes his first irreparable mistake that forces him into years of global travel.

From Viet Nam, and terrorism through out the 70s and 80s, through Ireland, France, Asia, and the Middle East, Cosmo and Nick run from themselves and from each other. It ends in Jerusalem, to where all roads lead.