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W. S. Culpepper is a retired physician living in Austin. He was raised in New Orleans, where he lived prior to Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Culpepper has written poetry since his undergraduate years at the University of Virginia where he was an Echols Scholar in English literature. His English haiku has appeared in the Tokyo Edition of the Mainichi Daily News, the International Newspaper of Japan, since 2001. He has produced a collection of less traditional Zen verse, entitled Haiku Lite: Poems for the New Millennium. His prose works include a travel memoir, France 2007: A Journal, and a collection of essays on growing up in post-WWII New Orleans, Tales of Yute. The Replacement Son is his first novel.
Reviewed by Lela Buchanan for Readers' Favorite
Who is Harry? That is the question. Is Harry the unfortunate second son who is always trying to find his identity and win the affection of his mother? Can he replace his older brother, Buddy, who was born with a defective heart and died very early in life? W.S.Culpepper adeptly weaves the thread of Harry's life's journey through the labyrinth of emotional turbulence and traumatic situations with a gentle but steady hand in his impressive work, "The Replacement Son." Harry is on a quest to fulfill his uncle's ancestral challenges - a heritage passed on to be personally productive, to positively invest in the world, and to find the key to a vast treasure. In a world fraught with many insidious dangers, Harry is supernaturally protected by his father's and mother's prayers, by his nanny Bertha's little bag of voodoo (a talisman he wears around his neck for thirty years) and a St. Benedict medal given to him by his neighbors as he is about to head off to war.
Throughout Harry's journey, we catch glimpses of his character, learning life wisdom as Harry does. "My whole life felt porous, like a cold wind was always blowing through it," Harry reflects. We see his disillusionment with romantic love: "Love was proof against danger - he once believed that romantic notion. Age and death had long ago parted that curtain." But Harry is a survivor. No, he is a victor in this battle we call life, utilizing the forces of love, resilience and integrity as he faces death through the graphic, realistic scenarios of WWII and Hurricane Katrina. "The Replacement Son" will stimulate you to consider what you believe about life and death as you walk alongside the remarkable, indomitable Harry.
