Richard Lafemina

In the Shadow of Our Father Richard Lafemina

"In The Shadow Of Our Father" is a story about the impact of an unusual man on his brood of unwanted, hapless children. It is a story told through the memories of his second son; a son who followed, in more ways than he would admit, in the frenzied steps of this stranger called Dad. We begin with some of the earliest recollections of Richard, the son who was quickly to become the "black sheep" amidst a family of grey lambs, all of whom lived on the fringe of a circle encompassing the normal Woven into these memories is a time-line that begins with the setting of a fire to an apartment in the Marcy Avenue Projects, and ends with the vivid recollection of Richard, now age 16, being carried off to the county jail by two burly sheriffs deputies bent on teaching the young punk in the back seat a lesson about right and wrong and the reaches of the long arm of the law. During the unfolding of this time-line, snippets of Jimmy's life philosophy, as told to his children, portray a teaching that would warp permanently the minds and styles of each one of his impressionable kids. In addition to his "crazy" views regarding how life was to be lived, we also encounter a number of events and actions that are at times humorous, in fact practically hysterical to the average outside observer, and at other times heart-breaking. As time and events whirl past at a dizzying pace Richard's personality is shaped and his future is destined in seemingly irreversible ways because of the unnatural, and, according to others, unholy impact of a thoughtless father whose only concern is to satisfy his most recent whim, however unrealistic it be. As Richard passes through childhood into adolescence he steps further and further into the darkened world created by his father's disdain for everything "normal", everything acceptable, and respectable, everything having to do with living life as it should be lived according to the collectively agreed upon rules. After a series of events wherein Richard strik