The Island Country

Long Island New York just after World War II when the country was great for some and not so great for others home to the Smith Family: Philip a racist Nassau County detective with a secret; his mentally ill wife Eunice speeding around the house looking for her coffee can of prescription pills; their oldest son Philip Jr. aspiring pastor and budding monster; daughter Joyce with a serious artistic talent that in the great mall culture she doesn't know what to do with; and Oscar an obese child who wants nothing more than to be a fireman when he grows up.</p><p>After surviving her own dysfunctional childhood Joyce marries Roger a beeraholic Customs Inspector with whom she would have two children: Griff an enterprising lad fully comfortable on the other side of a line and Stacy a girl attuned to a dark frequency few can perceive.</p><p>Decades go by marriages fall apart children long to escape and Joyce struggles to find happiness in her art and life in the only place she would ever know.</p>