Windfall Nights tells a story of coming of age and redemption. Following a devastating car accident, Julian returns to college a semester behind. Now a fifth year senior, he struggles to make ends meet. To help finance his final semester, he applies for a job as a night bellman at a second-rate hotel. There he meets a cast of interesting characters and Thomas, the man who would change Julian's life forever. Thomas is the hotel handyman and Julian soon learns that a dark secret haunts his new friend. Thomas, once a college football star, dropped out of sight at the peak of his sports career. There are mutterings of academic fraud and trouble with women but Thomas conceals his past. Bonding over shared vulnerabilities, the two young men become close friends. While their friendship grows, Julian begins to understand Thomas' remarkable gifts as well as the terrible demons he carries. The peace of his world is broken as Julian approaches his college graduation. Although Julian and Thomas move apart, they eventually meet again on the streets of Saigon at the height of the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, Julian pursues his career as a journalist and Thomas follows his destiny in a way that Julian will need a lifetime to understand.
About the Author :
William Claypool's published writings span several genres. He has published scores of technical and scientific papers as a respected researcher and biotech entrepreneur. As a fiction author he has written several screenplays and has recently published his third novel. His fiction is primarily character driven and he strives to keep his story lines as realistic as possible. His style is intentionally sparse and he limits his narration to comments that enhance the character's development and those that will allow for a fast paced plot. The resulting novels engage the reader, making it difficult to put the book (or e-reader!) down. William Claypool graduated from the University of Notre Dame and has held teaching positions at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Illinois Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a physician, research scientist, professor, pharmaceutical executive, entrepreneur, and writer. He lives outside of Philadelphia.
Review :
"For a touching story of two people trying to make their way in the world, look no further than Windfall Nights. Through the fictional accounts of the two key characters, Thomas and Julian, we are reminded that, regardless of who we are or where we go in our lives, everyone makes his/her mark on the world, even as the world unfolds around us in seemingly random fashion." Manhattan Book Review - 4 of 5 stars
Sometimes one comes across a novel based on an unlikely friendship--either between two people in their late years of life or between two people of different socioeconomic background or between two people of different age groups. Other differences aside, what links the two people is their understanding of each other. The time spent in each others' company may be of little duration, but the impact remains for the remainder of their lives. Such is the story of Julian and Thomas in //Windfall Nights// by William Claypool. The novel opens with Julian and his wife, Anna, enroute Vietnam, where he's struck by nostalgia for his friend Thomas. The story then flashes back to Julian's college years, where a car accident forces him to graduate six months after his peers. He is forced to work part time at the Lafayette Hotel as a night bellman, looking to earn some extra cash. What he didn't expect was that working at Lafayette was more than voluntary duty, it was an experience he'd never forget. He forges an unlikely friendship with Thomas, the hotel handyman. A university drop-out who was once a football star and a talented piano player, Thomas' life choices are an enigma to Julian. Their times shared together lead to unfolding of the troubled life of Thomas and why he chose to be a handyman. Thomas is present for some of the defining moments of Julian's life, and Julian later understands what an influence his dear friend will be in the years to come. The transition between flashbacks to Julian's life to the present has been penned skillfully, but is rather slow to progress. These kind of novels are not anti-climatic, but more moments could easily have been shared between the two leads, making each others' influence justified. This novel is highly recommended for readers of short stories." San Francisco Book Review (4.5 of 5 stars)
"Windfall Nights by William Claypool is a deftly crafted and consistently compelling story of coming of age and redemption in a troubled and chaotic world. A riveting read from beginning to end, Windfall Nights is one of those rare novels that will linger in the mind and memory long after the book itself is finished and set back upon the shelf."
Midwest Book Review
"In this debut novel, a man muses upon his bellhop job during college, when he first met troubled Thomas... ....Debut novelist Claypool--who lists among his credits being a football player, naval medical officer, and night bellman--skillfully draws from his experiences to produce a powerful narrative dominated by the ghost of Thomas, an enigmatic yet charismatic man. Claypool's sketches of various secondary characters--are striking, worthy of spinoff stories.
Elegiac, evocative tale of intersecting lives in a rich debut." --Kirkus Reviews
