内容简介：
The Broken Mask is a novel of time and torment, from the Great Depression to the computer revolution. An epic drama that illustrates the agony that each life depicted must endure and how each does, or does not, overcome their personal successes and tragedies. The scope of the saga sweeps across the country allowing the reader an opportunity to vividly imagine the beautiful grandeur. The Broken Mask tells about families and relationships-about generations of blood connections, about a relationship between a boy and his father, his mother, and his grandparents. About two men with diverse backgrounds, and the pain and suffering each must endure as the cards of life are dealt to each. Dirk Wescott was raised in a poor family in Oil City, a small town in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California. While Matthew Purcell Jr. was born to an affluent family in Santa Rosa, a moderate size city fifty miles north of San Francisco. Matt and Dirk are destined to clash. Book I details Dirk and his family .The plot details their lives and the personal misery Dirk suffers triggered by the tragic death of his father and his mother's illicit behavior. Book II tells of Matt, his family, and his conflict with Dirk. Throughout the novel Matt tries to do more for Dirk, and it isn't until Dirk's tragic death that Matt was finally set free from the burden of Dirk Wescott and his tragic life. While Dirk Wescott is overcome by the psychosis brought on by his jealousy of Matt and elements in his upbringing that drive him to violence. Dirk is intelligent, athletic, and an excellent manipulator people until the walls come crashing down. Will the reader pity Dirk? Or be jealous of Matt, as is Dirk? Now, I presentto you a saga of American life centered on the lives of two young men. Dirk Wescott and Matthew Purcell Jr. are not living beings, nor have they ever been alive. But, it has been my pleasure to meet and cavort about with life's splen