Tom Gnagey

David Tom Gnagey

For adults and young adults 15 and older. David is a super-bright, loveable, always helpful and compassionate 17-year-old. Everybody in his small town loves him. He pretty well runs the show in his high school. This story covers one week or so of his junior year during which there is a date to the Winter Dance, a band concert, church choir practice, sports, classes, interaction with his family - the usual things in a teen boy's life. The more meaningful story, however, deals with David's struggle to make sense of life - to find some purpose for living and fend off his reoccurring depression. He has lots of meaningful conversations with his best friend. They are different - polar opposites - in almost every way, and yet they share one important trait - the overriding desire to figure things out: why is there hate, how can greedy people just ignore the pain and suffering in the world, are there universally agreed upon standards of right and wrong, good and evil? Their very serious search is woven in among their rather normal teenage lives - the fun, the accomplishments, the associations, the good times and the bad. In the end, for David, he comes to believe that are all his options are bad.