Figures on a Beach

Elm Books introduces the first work in its new Grit Lit line, stories that reflect the lived experiences of today in all their beauty, humor, pettiness, dirt and local detail.

With $250 in his pocket and no employment prospects, John Jones flees the harsh Wyoming winter in his VW bus to search for a job and answers to life's questions. What he finds on that Texas beach is a bit of warmth and a variety of life from sand hill cranes to Maggie the dog. The beach also brings the companionship in a cast of characters who seem as adrift as he is--the Rainbow Family, Ben who yells at him, the ex-convict Mark, and Cathy, a woman he comes to care for. All of whom may or may not be real. In direct but leisurely prose, this semi-autobiographical novel explores a life on the margins of nature, society and sanity, giving us a vivid portrait of a life with schizophrenia.

"Figures on a Beach is not a pretty novel, not tied up cleanly with one thread and folded in the end; it is, instead, a real, substantial, thoughtful, and intelligent novel, and one that bares the intersection of love and longing, health and illness, and the desire to belong to something that the heart cannot quite identify." -Lori Howe, Editor-in-Chief, Open Window Review

Kirk VanDyke studied economics at Tulane University and the University of London, and has a PhD in biology and entomology from the University of Wyoming.