Synopsis "I, Dana, Killed a Rattlesnake"
Dana is a boy with a girl's name, born in Minnesota to parents that some may label, "Christian Fundamentalists" or "Holy Rollers." He is the oldest of six children, his father fighting in Viet Nam at the time of his birth. From an early age Dana's driven to be first and to be the best which is especially frustrating as he's slow to develop physically. Among the shortest kids in his classrooms throughout the elementary and middle school years, when his friends are sprouting hair all over their bodies, he is the lone, hairless wonder. He goes to great lengths to remedy this situation with horrific results including the decision to glue blonde hair on his chest from his sister's doll before school one day. With his father's refusal to live in or near a major city where the majority of jobs can be found, the family lives at or below the poverty line, considering unique living accommodations. At one time they consider living in an Amish community or becoming migrant fruit pickers. Instead they move to the mountains of Idaho and live in a canvass tent for some time before moving into an Indian Museum. Living in an ever-nomadic family, Dana's constantly changing schools and leaving friends. It's difficult for Dana to come to grips with the fact that he can't listen to the same music or watch the same TV shows or even go to trick-or-treating like his friends. More than anything, Dana just wants to be normal but he knows his life is anything but normal. Dana kills the first rattlesnake he encountered the summer between second and third grade. He faces rattlesnakes throughout his childhood in the forms of poverty, embarrassment, a boy who wants to kill him named Israel, his cousin Mack, a rigid religious upbringing, constant change and the ever-present fear of the apocalypse/rapture. This first book documents Dana's coming of age story from birth to the end of the world in 1980, his family on the top of a mountain with blowing trumpets to usher in the rapture on New Year's Eve. Dana who just turned 13 desperately wants to kiss a girl before the world ends. This memoir is written with Dana's unique (comedic) perspective and is full of colorful characters, adventure, love, laughs and situations that most people could never imagine! What happens when you mix Native Americans, hippies and evangelicals in the wilderness of Idaho and frozen tundra of Minnesota? I, Dana, Killed a Rattlesnake.
