The Quixotics by John Wayne Falbey

The Quixotics is a very modern take on Cervantes’ classic. This time the knight-errant, a former Special Forces officer, is young and virile, rather than an aged and spindly daydreamer. Instead of a single Sancho Panza, there are two rather dark and menacing companions. But where the venerable nobleman was weak and frail, these three men are young, powerful, and well trained in the killing arts. There is a Dulcinea, but she is not a thick-bodied peasant woman. She’s a beautiful, fiery, Sorbonne-educated anti-Castro guerilla.

This is a coming of age tale for the Baby Boomer generation. The time is 1970. The three young men have returned from military service in Vietnam. Like other returning warriors of that era, they’ve become disenchanted with a country that no longer feels comfortable or welcoming to them. Restless and troubled by what they see as the loss of individuality in an increasingly politically correct society, they decide to find an environment more to their liking.

They pool their meager resources and acquire a boat that’s barely seaworthy. Their plan is to sail leisurely through the Caribbean, living life on their own terms one idyllic day at a time, determined to find adventure and right the wrongs they encounter along the way. Combative with society – often with each other – and lacking sailing or navigational skills, they put to sea in the small, cramped boat.

To earn some badly needed cash, they grudgingly agree to deliver a cargo of weapons to anti-Castro insurgents in Cuba. The start is rough and the voyage is rougher, but all hell breaks loose once they reach the island. Captured by Castro forces, they’re imprisoned and tortured in an old Spanish dungeon. Later, they escape and join up with the rebels in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. Here, their talents for guerilla warfare, honed in the jungles of Vietnam, reassert themselves.

Before this tale of adventure, romance, and self-discovery is over, each man will come to appreciate Cervantes observation, “Our greatest foes, and whom we must chiefly combat, are within”.

THE QUIXOTICS is available from Amazon, Smashwords, iBooks and Barnes & Noble.

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John Wayne Falbey is a modern Renaissance man: attorney, martial artist, real estate developer, triathlete, university professor, competitive cyclist, lecturer, downhill skier, author, and adventurer. He draws on these experiences and more to create novels in the thriller genres. To combat the tediousness of the curriculum, he wrote his first novel in his “spare time” (1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.) as a student at Vanderbilt University School of Law. He also holds a Masters degree in business administration and Doctoral degrees in business management and marketing. He is a frequent lecturer, panelist, and moderator in the real estate development industry. He is the author of the techno-political thriller Sleeping Dogs: The Awakening, the first in a planned trilogy. His latest novel, The Quixotics, is a tale of gunrunning, insurgency, and adventure in the Caribbean. It was published in October 2012. When not traveling for business or pleasure, he and his wife live in Naples, Florida.