The Benjamin's Field trilogy follows a family over the course of sixty years through war, peace, triumph, tragedy, heartbreak, and final happiness as they learn that the people and institutions meant to sustain society often fail - with tragic results. In Book Two, Ascent, Jeremy Kyner, now a teenager, becomes the focus of his teacher's animosity because of his infirmity. Jeremy's grandfather, Benjamin Kyner, his hired hand, a Catholic priest, a Jewish blacksmith, a courageous girl, a societal misfit, and an unwitting class bully form an unlikely, and at times volatile, partnership to rescue him from the smothering grip of prejudice. With their help, Jeremy literally takes to the sky, defeating his teacher's plans to institutionalize him and forcing her to reveal her own, dark, secret. Finally, Randy Bridgewater, the long-absent best friend of Jeremy's dead war-hero father, emerges from the past with a surprise twist that propells the reader toward the dramatic conclusion of the Benjamin's Field Trilogy. More a philosophical treatment of the human condition than a mere fictional story, the Benjamin's Field trilogy is an interwoven tapestry of parables that explore various aspects of human existence, such as the role of family loyalty versus individual need, personal liberty and how it relates to society's demands, religious prejudice, racism, intolerance, the role of charity, and the overwhelming need for humans to forgive one another.
