ALBERT M. BALESH

THE STORYLINE

 

One would have expected to grow wise with age. That has not been the case, however, for Alex Bales, the protagonist of A BACHELOR PARTY FOR ODYSSEUS. Feeling ready to bail on life, he has refused to come to grips with the fact that he is not getting any younger, and is further afflicted by a disquietude that fails to accept the immutable law of Nature - that while the mind may be willing, the body certainly cannot. While youth profess being at the top of their game, those of us like Alex Bales, and Michael Jordan, who have fallen from "on high," can only sit idly by, and swallow the bitter pill of reminiscence. Past glories don't cut the mustard, and a driven man will go to any length and to any being, in this world or the next, to reacquire stature lost. A BACHELOR PARTY FOR ODYSSEUS deals with the chance to relive one's life, thanks to a mysterious and perhaps duplicitous doctor and his potent elixir, "FOY1" (Fountain of Youth 1). Alex, in looking at his personal failures, desperately wants the chance to do it all over again, and get it right the second time around. He believes he has the world by the balls, or is it vice versa? Alex's quest for realization takes him on a lust-filled joyride from Chicago to Rome to San Francisco, and then back to the source, in a series of twists, turns, and slights of hand that eventually lead to a surprise ending in the vein of a Faust story.

 

Alex Bales, a high-powered CEO in Chicago, has it all: money, good looks, and a loyal friend named Randy Danhurst, who would follow him into hell, if called on to do so. Yet something is missing in Alex's life. His flings with strange women and drunken debauchery bring him no satisfaction in his late, middle age, and he has already begun to see the telltale signs of his body's decline, the slight facial wrinkles, drooping eyelids, and dilated nasal capillaries that signal the "body traitor." He's gone on like this for years, on life's treadmill of mere existence, devoid of the true happiness that transcends drugs, sex, money, and rock n' roll. Then a straw breaks the camel's back, when Alex finds his friend Randy's body dripping blood on a bathroom floor, the victim of an apparent suicide he never saw coming. The shock triggers introspection, action, and a quest to relive his life, further encouraged by a strange and mysterious ad Alex sees buried in the Want Ads of the Chicago Tribune Newspaper.

 

It appears that a new experimental drug called FOY1 is about to be employed in a research project, to be conducted in the suburbs of Chicago. Bales makes the trek one fine morning to the address listed in the ad, and that becomes the beginning of either his quest for realization in a brave new world, or a plunge into deep, dark waters. He knows not where this urban adventure will take him, nor whether the characters he meets along the way are real, imaginary, supernatural, or just images of a sick mind. The strange character of Dr. Edward Stawson, the principal investigator in the experiment, promises to give Alex a new mental and physical identity at very little expense, a minimum of comeuppance, and no risks attached. Let Alex beware, however! Is Stawson a likeable old man, an uncompromising researcher, and master of the healing arts, or is he the representative of something far more sinister? Alex lives his life post-experiment, and goes down the "rabbit hole." This time, however, Alex is no Alice, and the characters he meets on his journey build on growing grim realization. Was his participation in Stawson's experiment nearsighted, at best?

 

Alex's quest to find truth, health, happiness, and a continuing place in a world so rapidly changing that it unsettles self-evident truths is no different from the dilemma faced by baby boomers and our aging population. Do we fund Obamacare? Do we rape the Social Security Administration? Do we sacrifice the old for the young? The chains of events that ensnare Alex, while complicated, are ripe for easy solution (like the political issues above), if only he would act decisively. This is fiction, however, and things always get even more complicated, as people and images disappear only to reappear, doubts grow, and the benevolent Dr. Stawson morphs into Mephistopheles. Or does he? The entire story builds to a climax that culminates in a surpise ending, which will leave the reader wanting more. Albert M. Balesh's novel is essentially about making the same mistakes over and over again, no matter how many lives we live. Thank God only cats have nine lives!