A Coming-of-Age Trilogy by Andrew Fisher

The Trilogy by Andrew Fisher:
Smoke Ring Day, Mandatory Eight Count, and The Pretender
Arnie Brucher’s idiosyncratic, occasionally idiotic, sometimes inspiring coming-of-age tale is here in all three volumes of his trilogy.

Smoke Ring Day:
In Smoke Ring Day, Arnie Brucher, a teenage boy in the New York suburbs in the early sixties, struggles to make sense of his life while navigating and experimenting in the turbulent waters of that tumultuous decade as the “Leave-it-to-Beaver world” that never was crumbles for good.
“Smoke Ring Day . . . is at times hilarious, at times profoundly sad, but always poignantly insightful concerning the experience of growing up in America in the late fifties and sixties. The narrator traces the ways in which the protagonist humbly, and with considerable pain, accrues self-knowledge and wisdom during the ups and downs of his life. The narrative voice is thoroughly engaging and speaks from the full range of human emotions. It would be a shame to miss this heart-rending story.”
—Thomas H. Ogden, author of two novels:The Parts Left Out and The Hands of Gravity and Chance

Mandatory Eight Count
In this sequel to Smoke Ring Day (2019), Arnie Brucher, freshly “recovered” from a lengthy stay in a psychiatric hospital, tries to make a go of college life in the late ’60s, and early ’70s. Amidst the smoldering cauldron of the social and political currents of the times, he continues his experimentation, encountering a parade of characters as he tries to find where or if he belongs.

The Pretender
In the iconic counterculture haven of Berkeley, California, Arnie’s idealism and pursuit of authenticity collide with the harsh realities of adulthood. As he navigates the complexities of love, identity, and the masks we wear, he must confront the price of sanity and stability in a world that demands compromise. Can he hold onto his ideals? Or will the weight of reality strip away the masks and reveal the true self? As the final installment, this novel probes the tension between idealism and reality, asking: What happens when the alternative life confronts the inevitable?

ANDREW FISHER is a clinical psychologist practicing in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 50 years. He lives there with his wife, dog, and baseball mitt. He spent 35 years writing this trilogy of auto-biographical novels. Mostly true, some fiction. Some regrets, mostly gratitude.