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"The Oedipus Syndrome"
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"THE OEDIPUS SYNDROME" is a series of five E-Book Novels.
PROLOGUE
Oedipus is a man who, at the behest of others, follows the course of his life vaulting himself towards self-destruction. His life script is apparent to every one but him.
Although he walks in blindness, he is nonetheless a man of super courage, outstanding nobility, and high-hearted intensions; In spite of his merits, both his virtues and defects conspire with fate against him.
While he may be ignorant of his unnatural situation, while he may see, at the end of his career or life, what has happened to him, he may die never knowing that he denied himself the right granted by the Gods, his natural passage of life, which is due every human being who has lived before me and who will come after me.
Sophocles
Circa, 470 B.C.
Theme of " Oedipus the King"
| Book One - Blind Intentions - Trilogy
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Book 1 - Part 1: "Blind Intentions" - The Present
New York City Time: 06/30/1993
SYNOPSIS Book 1 - Part 1:
"Blind Intentions" - The Present
Ramon Antonio Frataleon, Raf, sits at his desk in his office facing a mid-life crisis. As he plans his retirement as CEO of Frataleon, Inc., he questions the make-up and motivations of each family member he had blindly dedicated his love, loyalty and soul to. Through his adult life, as he rescued and rebuilt his family's business, resolved their life crises, he had sacrificed the needs of his heart and soul. While trying to find his answers his younger sister, Nicole, telephones him with news - their mother, the company's sole owner, is near death in a Los Angeles Hospital. Most of his life, spoken between he and his parents, was the promise that the fruits of his labor would always be his with one proviso his mother had forced on him when he was a child; he was to escort her to her final resting place, away from his father, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Without trepidation, he faces this new turning point in his life while en route to Los Angeles in his company's jet.
Book 1 - Part 2: "Blind Intentions" - An Awakening
SYNOPSIS Book 1 - Part 2:
"Blind Intentions" - An Awakening
While traveling between coasts on his company jet to the bedside of his dying mother, Raf lays down for a much-needed rest. His dream take him back to Zermatt, Switzerland, to 1975, one of the happiest yet one of the most tragic times of his life. He revisits a part of his life when, after more than a year of a hard, grueling, non-stop, work schedule, he had anticipated a worry-free two-weeks of relaxation and non-stop skiing. But on a train taking him up to Zermatt Village, he chance encounters a mysterious, precocious young girl whose ways and ideas would have a life-altering effect on him. Through her eyes and her perceptions of everything around her, she causes him to become more self-aware of the place he is at in his own life. Nonetheless, he feels the need to ignore and dismiss her and her family. But because Zermatt is a small village and they coincidentally stay at the same hotel he does, he finds that hard to do. But fate intervenes and solves that problem for him.
The Past - 3/1975, Zermatt, Switzerland
The Present - 6/1993, Los Angeles, California
Book 1 - Part 3: "Blind Intentions" - A Realization
The Past - 3/1975, Los Angeles, California
The Present - 6/1993, Los Angeles, California
SYNOPSIS Book 1 - Part 3:
"Blind Intentions" - A Realization
June 1993. The company jet arrives in Los Angeles at midnight. Raf's mother has not yet expired but he fears that he may still not be in time to beat her Mayan god of death, Charmer, to her bedside. The heavy June fog of Los Angels slows his limousine to almost a walking pace. During his agonizing trip to the hospital, he reflects on the history of his family's second major crisis, in 1975, and its aftermath. Alone then, he had faced the devastation of his father's grave illness and the burdening life-altering family obligations that went with it, the likes of which he had never expected nor wanted.
Presently arriving at the hospital, he is on time to bid his mother farewell. Lulled into a stupor while sitting vigil at her deathbed, Raf recalls a better place, a better time in his life, his childhood where and when his world, like an age-old, immovable redwood tree seemed to be anchored on hard, unshakable ground and could never be uprooted.
| Book Two - Betrayed Innocence - Trilogy
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Synopsis
Book Two -- Betrayed Innocence
Part Four – Right Of Passage
While at vigil at his mother's deathbed, in Cedars-Sinai Hospital at Los Angeles, California, Raf, trying desperately to accept her final act of life, sits back in her rocking chair and closes his eyes, "only for a few minutes," he tells himself. In self-defense, his worried state of mind takes him back to one of their happier times together, his childhood of the summer of 1956.
For the first time in his young memory, his parents are taking him on an extensive motoring, summer vacation to visit his paternal grandparents in Houston, Texas and his maternal grandmother at her ranch, Casa Iru’n, in Choluteca, Honduras.
Not ever having had an exclusive parental relationship with them before, at least not one he remembered, Raf is ecstatic at the prospect of not sharing his parents with anyone, even if only for a month. In Houston he gains a new respect for one part of his heritage, which gives him an identity he cannot ignore. But as they progress day-by-day towards Casa Iru'n he not only becomes aware of the other half of his heritage but also of the many frailties and shortcomings of his parents as well.
Finally near their destination, his only seemingly uplifting incident is meeting an old friend he had long forgotten about.
Synopsis
Book 2 – Betrayed Innocence
Part 5 – Coming Of Age
At last! Raf's ten-day motor trip to Casa Iru'n has ended but not without his suffering the mental fatigue of a war torn victim. At first sight, he melts into the arms of the grandmother he had previously heard so much about but doesn’t remember ever meeting. Erasing all the worries he had had about their first meeting is a warm greeting that immediately fuses a solid bond between them. With no resistance from his parents, Dominica takes charge of her grandson, introduces him to ranch life and in the process captivates him. Raf easily falls into the daily routine of Casa Iru'n, a regimen that makes him feel as though he had been born and raised there. The only thing he was not prepared for was also meeting his murdered grandfather, Ramon Austino de Diegas, through an unfinished, hand written journal he had discovered in his old desk.
Raf vows to spend all night reading it through and through. Only physical collapse would keep him from finishing the voluminous account he promises himself.
Synopsis
Book 2 – Betrayed Innocence
Part 6 – Alter Ego
The biography of Raf's grandfather takes him on an emotional journey that solidifies his identity and anchors him solidly within himself. The journal brings out in him a newer, higher level of understanding that gives deeper meaning to his sense of dignity, explains to him his hidden lust for adventure and fills his void of pride. He learns why his grandfather had migrated from Ma’laga, Spain to the northern shores of Honduras. He follows him closely as he makes his way in his host country and a new life. He endures all of his pains and pleasures as a young man trying to settle in a new country and adopt a new culture.
Left with a moment of truth that he is hard pressed to understand, the diary has unknowingly opened a new world for Raf. Questioningly he goes about finishing his vacation.
It's only later in his life that he thinks to wonder how he could have expected to go back to his home in Glendale as the same young, innocent child that he was when he had left.
| Book Three - Beyond Expectations - Trilogy
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Synopsis
Book 3 – Beyond Expectations
Part 7 – Shattered Lives
Thinking his vacation near its end Raf is surprised at the frantic summons he receives from Enzio, his newfound friend, to accompany him to a bone specialist who will hopefully restore the use of his maimed foot or he won’t go.
The trip from Casa I’run to Tegus, then on to Houston by plane, Raf’s first flight, for Enzio’s medical appointment, then back to Tegus and on back to Casa I’run, all within three days, proves to be a life defining moment for Raf. At the end of his mercy trip he and Enzio form a deep bond that will last them their lifetimes.
While the trip itself is a positive one, the trauma that awaits Raf on his return to Casa I’run is a life-changing event. In its aftermath He must find a way to deal with the grief he suffers at the hands of those he trusts the most.
Even with the help of his grandmother and his deceased grandfather his decisions and solutions don’t come easy to him.
Synopsis
Book 3 – Beyond Expectations
Part 8 – Demise And Rebirth
After a long illness Sara dies. Now Raf must honor his old promise to his mother that he will take her to her final resting place, her father’s mausoleum in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
To relieve the tensions of being confined with his sister Nicole for the nine-hour trip there from Los Angeles, on the company’s private jet, Raf, during his idle time, ruminates many things: How the company grew. How and when he had decided to acquire a company jet to begin with. And not least, how, in 1975, against all odds, he had reconciled with the love of his life.
Synopsis
Book 3 – Beyond Expectations
Part 9 – A Life’s Commitment
ISBN 1-59118-052-X
During the slow hours of his jet flight to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where he will inter his mother in her family mausoleum finally fulfilling his promise to her, Raf remains nailed in his past and dwells on the rocky times and the circumstances that solidly anchor his life’s love and soul mate into his existence.
A threatening storm brings him back to the present day and it’s only on the last leg of the flight that he is no longer able to avoid his final altercation with Nicole, one that threatens the safety of them all.
Frustrated and near his wits end with her he again he asks himself, “How did this all start with her?”
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The Oedipus Syndrome
2243 Kenilworth Avenue Suite #2
Los Angeles, California 90039
USA
Ph: 323 - 665-2714
webmaster@oedipus-syndrome.com
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