Oscar Crease

The novels' protagonist, Oscar, is a stubborn, argumentative, and paranoid college teacher, writer, lecturer and legal devote. His age is not stated, but having taught American History at Lotusville Community College for 12 years and being turned down by book-publishers decades earlier as being too old to market, Oscar must be, at least, in his mid-forties. Oscar teaches uninterested students he despises, despite having a trust fund from his rich mother. In 1977, he writes a play, "Once at Antietam," as homage to his late grandfather, a Supreme Court justice. Grandfather is the only person Oscar feels ever truly loved him. Oscar also hopes it will impress the cold Father he has always feared, but the script is rejected as unsuitable for television by the one producer to whom he submits it. We first meet Oscar, as he's hospitalized for broken ribs and a leg suffered in a freak...