John Cruickshank

Jason's Ladder John Cruickshank

Fly back to 1957 when Jason Roberts was beginning his career as a young San Francisco lawyer. This fast paced story explores the destruction of myths and collision with reality that are the central focus of this novel, a polyglot of actual events molded into the fantasy of the writer's imagination. The elegant restaurants of the day, the beatnik clubs on upper Grant, the lives of the people of the city come alive as the plot unfolds. Lorraine MacPherson, illegally in the United States from Canada is facing imminent arrest by the immigration service. Wendy, the wife of Lorraine's boss, suggests she marry to avoid deportation. Lorraine and Jason meet the fellow Wendy has chosen to marry her in a second story gay bar discretely hidden from public view. Jason is overwhelmed by the encounter and eventually understands that he has fallen in love with Lorraine himself and they marry. They rent a quietly classic apartment on Nob Hill, its windows overlooking a Regency mansion next door, the only one left in the area privately owned and still occupied by one family. Lorraine becomes obsessed with the neighbors, secretly monitoring their movements, wanting to meet them but lacking either opportunity or social connections to achieve it. Two men live there and one woman other than the servants. The development of the relationship between Jason, Lorraine and the next door neighbors, Jackson, his brother, Jeremy Stoddard and Jackson's wife Viola form the essence of this novel. Strolling through the pages we meet a coterie of unique characters, Susan St. John, her name pronounced CINJUN a prominent socialite, believed to have bedded even presidents. There is Whitney Hill, the fey yet charmingly elegant, wealthy gentlemen considered an essential guest at any party regardless of his affected manner of speech. Jason becomes more focused after marrying Lorraine. His professional success is propelled forward when the Stoddards suggest he help them in the take over a new bank being formed by Nate Silverstein. Nate is crass and overbearing, yet highly successful in the banking business. The developments of the bank, the inter-relationships between the various personalities, the intrigue, struggles for control and approach to business are treated in depth leading to a surprising and unexpected twist as the story concludes.