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"Back to the Future" meets Travels With Charley, collides with Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, and then drinks a beer with Max Goldman from "Grumpy Old Men"… all of it happening simultaneously and serially.
When grumpy 75 year old Charlie Messina wakes from a coma after a cardiac event on Cape Cod, he is told that he was only unconscious for a few days. However, Charlie knows he has spent the last several months living through a parallel life that lies ahead of him. Which includes a personal tragedy, an unlikely awkward friendship with two local boys, and a road trip with his playboy best friend from college and a dog that no else sees (except the children). When he shares his story about the life he lived, his wife and grown sons think he's crazy. He then realizes he must play along with his family—and the geriatric psychiatrist—or they'll be convinced he's suffering dementia and will put him into a home for "dribblers and droolers."
"In Steven Lewis's wildly imaginative and entertaining novel, we follow curmudgeonly, big-hearted Charlie Messina as he suddenly finds himself passing through the veils of time and space, death and dreams, his life as it was and as it is yet to be. What makes the story so powerful is that Lewis casts this journey within and around the joys and pathos of family life—-there is no escape, after all, from the human condition. You’ll be thinking about Charlie and his family long after you finish this book. A must read." — Tony Hozeny, author of Driving Wheel and My House Is Dark
"There's a real art to writing sensitively about insensitivity, and Steve Lewis has mastered it. Without sugar or sleight of hand, he reveals the depth of heart in Charlie Messina, his irascible, cantankerous hero who secretly longs to break through the "membrane" that separates him from others. Featuring a deftly-created gallery of male relationships—fathers, sons, friends, boys —this extraordinary book transports us through mysteries of perception where time, logic and even death prove more fluid than we think. Take this journey!" — Irene O’Garden, Off-Broadway playwright, award-winning poet, and author of Glad to Be Human
"Charlie Messina, the erratic, lovable, self-proclaimed "big mouth" protagonist in Steve Lewis' new novel, The Lights Around the Shore, wonders and wanders across the lines of psyche and state, searching for clarity and redemption. He sneaks cigarettes, sees dogs that may or may not be there, and regularly leaps into his "battered old Jeep" with various destinations in mind: his beloved lobster roll joint, the nearby Sunoco station and see-through tunnels of his shaky soul. The gripping, slim mash-up of a tale grazes on the effects of spiritual reckoning, family grief and the sometimes-unexplainable impulse of the artist. Not to mention the salty seaside air of coastal spots like Cape Cod, Sanibel Island and Newport. Lewis is a wit master, the giver of hilarious dialogue and an experimental approach to storytelling that unveil the preciousness of Charlie's gifts-the seen and unseen ones-and offer them space and time to shine on each captivating page." — Kathy Curto, author of Not for Nothing: Glimpses into a Jersey Girlhood
"Born with a rare caul—a membrane covering his face— Charlie Messina is a cynical grump with adult children, bad habits, and supernatural vision. One of Steve Lewis' most indelible characters, Charlie makes for strangely good company as he struggles to accept his unique gifts—and a changing world." — Edward McCann, award-winning television writer/producer, founder of WritersRead.org
Steve Lewis is a former Mentor at SUNY-Empire State College, longtime member of the Sarah Lawrence College Writing Institute faculty, and longtime freelancer and editor. His work has been published widely, from the notable to the beyond obscure, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, LA Times, Redbook, Commonweal, Ploughshares, Narratively, Spirituality & Health, Road Apple Review, The Rosicrucian Digest, and a biblically long list of parenting publications (7 kids, 17 grandkids). He is also Senior Editor/Literary Ombudsman for the spoken word venue Writers Read. His extensive book list includes Zen and the Art of Fatherhood, Fear and Loathing of Boca Raton, If I Die Before You Wake (poems), and the novels Take This, Loving Violet, A Hard Rain. A poetry collection, Fire in Paradise, co-authored with Elizabeth Bayou-Funk, was published in July 2022 by Codhill Press.