Silas Dillon of Cary County: A Novel

Clifford Schrage

jul 2017 · Morgan James Publishing

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Hailed as that “rarest of novels,” this heartbreaking story of tragedy and triumph follows a boy’s struggle through foster care to a chance at happiness (Vince Clemente, Professor Emeritus, Stony Brook University). Born to a chemically dependent, emotionally unstable mother who cannot care for him, young Silas Dillon is thrust into the cold and bureaucratic foster care system on Cary Island in New York Bay. Worse still, his mother selfishly refuses to give him up for full adoption, dooming Silas to a chaotic life between brief stays with her and various foster homes.
 
With no one to trust or love, Silas grows old beyond his years, overwhelmed by loneliness, alienation, anger, and self-destructive behavior. As years go by, he grows into a bitter, resentful young man.
 
As hopeless as his situation may seem, there is still hope for Silas to find joy in his world. But it will take every bit of strength he has to unshoulder the pain and betrayal of his past and take control of his future . . .

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Besides being a published novelist (A Fruitful Field and Silas Dillon of Cary County) a published poet (Broken Prose, Spoken Poems) and essayist; besides having served as a chaplain of a parochial high school for six years, teaching high school English for twenty-nine years, chairing an English department for two years, coaching high school soccer for ten years, holding a Master’s degree, serving as a youth leader for two years, Cliff is the father of eight children- two biological and six adopted (foreign and domestic), and has been a foster father for seven years to six foster children, experiencing many of the frustrations of working with the bureaucracy of the foster care and family court systems in New York City. He’s been engaged in one lengthy court struggle over one child’s custody. He has also encountered the trauma of losing a child following all the jarring experiences of an enduring terminal illness. Cliff, with his wife Sherry of thirty-six years, has grown acquainted with parenting, with adoption, with foster care, and with family court in New York, which is somewhat representative of most states; and he’s become concerned about harmful flaws in the system, especially to its children.