Book Review
Copyright (c) 1994, Steve Powers
All rights reserved


The Stone Bruise - James C. McCormick (Baskerville, $23.00).
 
The Stone Bruise is a sweet, poignant tale of love, honor and integrity.
Real life is mirrored in its pages, from the dreaming of youth to the
sorrow and emptiness that can come with maturity.  Emotions and action
are woven together in an affectionate tapestry. 

From the idealistic, heady flush of first love to the hollowness of
excessive wealth, The Stone Bruise is a dizzying kaleidoscope that spins
swiftly through the years. 

James McCormick has masterfully crafted a story that dips and soars,
following Scott McQuaid from the Depression era of the thirties to the
pinnacle of wealth and power in the eighties. 

Scott's beginnings are humble, as he grows up in Ennis, Texas.  His
father is a stern man who teaches young Scotty that emotions are to be
kept inside, even as he whimpers and cries over the "stone bruise" of
the title. 

The sudden death of Scott's father thrusts him into a role of early
maturity, in which he must support his mother,both financially and
emotionally. 

The years fly by with dizzying swiftness as Scott works in California,
joins the Air Force, marries Marjorie Fielding and fathers two children,
Bobby and Gracie. 

He earns a business degree at SMU and begins his remarkable climb to the
top of the business world, becoming very rich and powerful. 

For all of Scott's wealth, he is not a happy man; his wife becomes an
alcoholic and his children are caught up in the burgeoning drug culture
of the sixties. The exhilaration of achieved dreams turns into a empty
sadness that bruises Scott more painfully than the stone bruises he
suffered as a small boy. 

This is a wonderful and captivating book, one that will deeply involve
readers in the ups and downs of the McQuaid family.