Packer and Jack (Paperback)

LA isn't the easiest place to find goodness in humanity, and the six square downtown blocks Packer and Jack call home aren't the friendliest. Packer never had much choice; while going for ice cream, he was orphaned and took to misquoting the Bible to explain the unexplainable. Jack, wanting only to maintain the status quo, was abruptly shunted out the door of a twenty-year marriage. After a month in Beverly Park sanitarium, she learned to dine from samples on Safeway's deli counter and hide in plain sight dressed as a man. When the two meet at Sunday Breakfast, Packer takes an interest. On the street, he is the more capable of the two, having created out of a chaotic world his own peaceable kingdom. Jack is so frightened she can't even admit to her gender. After several years of self-pity, Jack cleans up but must own her current reality before she can claim her future. Both Packer and Jack reveal secrets, strategies, internal pain, true goodness, and love. The understanding and acceptance that permit both Packer and Jack to let go and grow--those lessons are universal.