Title: Marvin’s Garden
Author: Joseph Brisben
Publisher: Toplink Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 978-1949804690
Pages: 120
Genre: Fiction/Drama/Paranormal
Synopsis
When she was growing up, all Madge Duckworth wanted was to marry a man who was going places. She found that in her husband, Marvin, a farmer, but then she discovered she had married a sadist, a glutton, and man so greedy that he cheats his brother out of his family’s estate and disowns his own son. Madge’s life runs on terror-filled inertia with horrible beatings at Marvin’s hands. The only pleasant things in her life are her job in the telephone company in Pond Creek, OK, her friendship with Marge Brauniger, and spying on her son Jason and his family without Marvin’s knowledge. Then cancer strikes Marge. She eventually finds solace in her housekeeper, Betty Buckley, Betty’s threelegged dog Frankie, and Betty’s old horse Argus. After she dies, her ghost fortunately witnesses Marvin’s comeuppance.
About the Author
Joseph Brisben has been writing fiction for more than four decades, mostly short studies. He has wanted to be an author since he was in the third grade in Adams Grade School in his hometown, Enid, Oklahoma. He studied English and American literature first at the University of Chicago and then at Drake University. In recent years, he has studied during the Summer Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Most of his stories take place in Enid and his mother’s hometown, Pond Creek, OK. Now retired, Brisben worked as a reporter and copyreader for the Chicago Tribune, in college public relations, and as an investment counselor. He also plays jazz, folk, and blues guitar and a number of other instruments. He has four children and four grandchildren and lives in Iowa City, IA.