The Jake Fischer Stories

Jake Fischer, like many young men, struggled to find his place in the world all his life. At 12, he and his family left the familiarity of the Bronx to live in the unfamiliar, segregated world of South Carolina in the 1950s. An unexpected job loss brings the family back to the Bronx, but Jake has a falling-out with his parents and hitchhikes in Europe, traveling to the Dead Sea, the lowest place on Earth.

With the nation preparing for the Vietnam War, Jake is drafted into the Army. Rejected by intelligence school, he transfers to the Michigan Army Hospital as a psychiatric social worker, doing his best to help soldiers wounded badly in mind and body. Nearby Detroit serves as a place for R&R, but the violence there—and demonstrations in Chicago in 1968—find him in league with those protesting the war.

Jake works in a string of jobs before finding his true calling, which comes as a surprise to all involved: teaching U.S. history and acting at an alternative New York City high school. In the end it may be his students who teach him the biggest lesson. The Jake Fischer Stories provides an unflinchingly honest and sometimes humorous account of one man’s quest to find meaning and purpose in his life.