In the Eye of the Storm

Craig Lesley, '67

Events during his sojourn at Whitman College deeply influenced his new novel, Storm Riders, says Craig Lesley, '67.

The book, based on Lesley's own experience raising a foster child born with fetal alcohol syndrome, is the story of a father's agonizing relationship with his adopted son, a disabled and disturbed Tlingit Indian boy.

During his years at Whitman, from 1963 to 1967, "so much changed in the country with regard to civil rights, the war on poverty - optimism that we could and should make a difference," says Lesley. "Dozens of Whitman grads joined the Peace Corps or VISTA. When I had the opportunity to become the foster parent for a damaged American Indian boy, I was certain I could help him, and I did, but I never expected the struggle or the cost."

Storm Riders "is a deeply personal novel," Lesley writes in an author's statement. His foster son, called Wade White Fish in the book, had been in 19 foster homes before coming to live with Lesley and his wife at the age of four. "In the early 70s, we had no diagnosis for fetal alcohol syndrome or the witches' brew of other problems that drinking, malnutrition, and neglect had marked on Wade. The experts thought he was deaf, autistic, retarded, learning disabled, or handicapped in other ways."

With Wade, says Lesley, life was "filled with frustration and reward, joy and fear. Having been deserted by my own father when I was an infant, I wanted to prove I could be a responsible parent myself."

Lesley says he included humor in the book, but it is "balanced by the heartbreak and fear. Over the years, especially when he hit puberty, Wade's frightening and bizarre behavior forced me to seek another placement for him."

Storm Riders explores the conflicted emotions of a father who faces the same painful choice and whose loyalty and love for his son are challenged by the increasing burden. He also has to reconcile his decision with the idealism of his youth.

Chapter 18 opens with a reference to "college in the sixties," where Clark, the main character, "was excited by the spirit of the times." Years later, class reunion celebrants gather on the steps of "Memorial Hall" for a photograph that includes a blue and maize, but tattered and burned, class flag [designed, in real life, by Lyn Smallwood for a reunion of the Whitman College class of 1967]. Perhaps the flag was "a sign of victory after the battle," says the novel's narrator. "After the important social changes those times had produced, Clark had been convinced he could save one small boy's life."

Lesley's earlier books include the novels Winterkill and The Sky Fisherman, which both won Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Awards, and Riversong. Storm Riders was published in January by Picador USA/St. Martin's Press.