Penelope Rundle

Moonflower Penelope Rundle

A moonflower blooms at night. In this novel set in the seventies, Boston became ground zero for the educational industrial complex that morphed and expanded into a prodigious profit center still churning out graduates today. Not only was Boston an educational hub, it supported a thriving nightlife. Alongside the laudable mission of educating, a health epidemic emerged when patients began presenting with the first symptoms of HIV and AIDS-a previously unknown complex malady. Whoever may have been patient zed, the first carrier, two women attending college became antagonists in the struggle to become educated and liberated in complicated times. Both were swept along by confusing societal shifts accompanying the end of the Vietnam War, women's liberation movements, President Richard Nixon's resignation and its aftermath, to name only a few turning points. The women grew up and became very successful-one, a physician keeping patient records, the other a prostitute taking notes--but their conflict never died. Education aside, baser elements of human nature prevailed in a tragic question and a feud spanning decades. Everyone has karma, and karma has everyone.