Hawkins County by Steven Merrill Ulmen
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(Paperback)
- Age Range: Young Adult
- Pub. Date: April 2006
- 276pp
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: April 2006
- Publisher: Lulu.com
- Format: Paperback, 276pp
- Age Range: Young Adult
- ISBN-13: 9781411688070
- ISBN: 1411688074
Synopsis
A cocky, wise-cracking young Juvenile Probation Officer battles troubled lives and senseless deaths as he establishes a career and finds adventure, friendship, romance, and a new home in Hawkins County. Although fictionalized, this bittersweet story is based on actual people and events in a small, rural county.
But "Hawkins County" is more than a corrections casework study. It is a trip back to the 1970's, and it's all here - the movies, the TV shows, the tunes, the jokes, the humor, the heartache, Vietnam - all the elements that influenced our lives during the era. "Hawkins County" is for baby-boomers, Vietnam veterans, police officers, sheriff's officials, social workers, youth counselors, probation officers - yes, even juvenile delinquents and others who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law - and everyone else who savors a nostalgic story about life as it happene during the 1970's.
Midwest Book Review
"Set in a southern Minnesota rural community and drawing upon his many years of service as a Juvenile Probation Officer, Steven Ulmen's debut novel is an original story (but one that could be taken from the ledgers of any Juvenile Justice System today) told with a humor and candor that holds the readers full and rapt attention from beginning to end. "
More Reviews and RecommendationsCustomer Reviews
Hawkins Countyby Anonymous
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May 20, 2006: Pat O'Connor is a juvenile delinquent who, with the aid of his alcoholic father, spends most of his time outrunning the police who have a warrant for his arrest for a probation violation. His gang consists of five other delinquents, including the sociopathic son of Judge Charles Halloran, the Hawkins County Juvenile Court Judge. Can cocky, wise-cracking Juvenile Probation Officer Jack Johnson keep Pat and his buddies from self-destruction? Can he divert any of them from becoming career criminals and long term incarcerated prisoners of the state's penal system? Set in a southern Minnesota rural community and drawing upon his many years of service as a Juvenile Probation Officer, Steven Ulmen's debut novel is an original story (but one that could be taken from the ledgers of any juvenile justice system today) told with a humor and candor that holds the readers full and rapt attention from beginning to end.
Hawkins Countyby Anonymous
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May 14, 2006: Steve Ulmen is not new to the world of law enforcement or corrections, having devoted his entire adult life to working with the unfortunate segment of our society that ends up entangled in the criminal justice system. His new novel, (HAWKINS COUNTY) draws from life at a time shortly after he started as a probation agent in a small southern Minnesota community. Ulmen was not far removed in age from the central character of the story so the thought and words come from a unique perspective. He lays bare many of the reasons for juvenile delinquency in the 1970's and shows how small mistakes can have profound, life-shattering effects on the young people and those around them. Ulmen works hard in the piece to try to insure accuracy of places, events, slang, and dress. Sometimes he fails, but the fault may be more one of memory than deceit. The writer lived through many changes in how the system treats and deals with criminal offenders. The 'get tough' attitudes of the 60's and 70's gave way to more permissiive and gentler types of supervision in the 80's and 90's. Once again we see society and the courts demanding treatment of our youthful offenders with an iron fist. The novel is not about whether the methods used then were right or wrong. Rather, it searches the soul of one young man facing an immovable system, and the effects of those encounters. An enjoyable read and a look back into the past, particularly for those of us who lived through it as part of the 'system.' NOTE: Jerry Huettl also served as the model for the character of Officer Lowell McCarthy in the story, and as an expert consultant on police procedures as detailed in the book.
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