Bill Broder

A Man of No Rank Bill Broder

Story is the essence of the identity of every human being. At birth, we enter a story already made for us and until the story is shattered it is our destiny. Eventually, death, war, accident, bankruptcy or earthly disaster shatters our personal story and we must create a new one to give our lives meaning. This book is the chronicle of one man's progress out of his family's story, through various accidents of life to the meeting of a good woman who helped lead him to storytelling. Both the author and his wife did not come to their craft solely by accident. Very early, stories provided both solace and hope for them. They took refuge from the stresses of life in the wonder they found in a whole array of tales that arrived first in bedtime stories, then in books. They discovered the treasures of public libraries. Later magazines and even movies wove the mysteries of life into meaningful sequences. When they first met, they discovered that they admired the same sort of stories, followed by the realization that they admired the same sort of people, which is what good stories are about. It was then they devoted the rest of their lives to each other and to the craft. The remainder of the book narrates the arduous path the author took in his career as a fiction writer, a playwright, and a free-lance writer for institutions-schools, museums, and other spaces devoted to the education of the public. At the end of the book, the author's life-narrative is shattered by his wife's death. Once again, he must make up a new story-the story of living alone.