Crimes of Innocence

A Half Century of Public and Private Moral Ambivalence "The Thanksgiving Trilogy," by Bill Broder, presents a portrait of the human and historical dilemmas in our country during the last fifty years. In three novels, Bill Broder follows a group of friends who left their blood families in the East and formed close relationships in the San Francisco Bay Area-a family formed in exile. The annual reunion of this "family" takes place at Thanksgiving dinners. The three books, each complete in itself, explore significant aspects of California: a vision of possibilities, a sense of exile and mobility, and a respect for the past-aspects that have contributed greatly to the development of American culture as a whole. "Crimes of Innocence," Book One of The Thanksgiving Trilogy, chronicles the dizzying plunge of a decent man, Jeremy Finch, into the earliest battles that helped define the protest movement of the 1960's. The movement coalesces in 1959 over three causes: the hearings of House Un-American Activities Committee, nuclear bomb testing, and the scheduled execution of Caryl Chessman. The novel explores the elusive boundary between "criminal" behavior and "moral" behavior. In the course of the novel, the family founds the Califia Institute, a think tank embracing the spectrum of American politics from "ideal-politic" to "real-politic." Praise for Bill Broder's works: "The Sacred Hoop" is a wise and eloquent book, outlining through story the tragedy and triumph of human evolution. -Edward Abbey [In "The Sacred Hoop"] Bill Broder...is a master storyteller, whose graceful prose is so engrossing that readers will find themselves instantly absorbed in what is sure to become a classic." -Pat Holt, The San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle In "Taking Care of Cleo"...Broder combines a storyteller's delight in complicated predicaments with a painter's eye for landscape and body language and a poet's sense of place." -Donna Seaman, Chicago Tribune [In "A Prayer for the Departed"] Broder's careful, eloquent meditations upon family life transform this account from a mere history or memoir to a celebration of, and tribute to, family life. . . .The book's glance at history as a moving force and its examination of each decade allow readers to realize and experience history and the past. Broder not only shares his life and journey with readers, but allows them to touch and feel it. A tender, inquisitive book that will appeal to those from old and new worlds. --Kirkus Indy Review
About the Author: Bill Broder was born and brought up in Detroit. He graduated from Columbia College, served in the Navy, and wrote and taught writing as a Teaching Assistant under Wallace Stegner and Richard Scowcroft at Stanford. His latest novel, "Taking Care of Cleo," appeared in 2006. It was chosen as one of six fiction finalists in the Great Lakes Book Awards and was one of twenty books from all categories chosen as a Notable Book of 2007 by the Michigan Library Foundation. Broder has published two other books of fiction: "The Sacred Hoop," Sierra Club Books (1979 and paperback 1992); "Remember This Time," written with his wife, Gloria Kurian Broder, Newmarket Press, 1983. His first self-published memoir, A Prayer for the Departed, Ainslie Street Project (2011) received a favorable review from Kirkus Indie Review, and was rated highly by the Indie Reader. Broder has also acted as member, Executive Director and Artistic Director of a playwrights workshop, California On Stage, and has completed a number of full-length plays. "Abalone!" was produced in Carmel, California. Professionally, Broder has worked extensively as a free-lance writer, specializing in the writing, design, and production of educational materials for museums, schools, exhibitions, and publishing companies.