Dust Bowl Disorder

Author: David Weiss

ISBN 978-1-63868-233-2 (softcover)

430 pages

With the Depression raging, 19-year-old Cathy Miller, a naïve farm girl from a dysfunctional family, arrives in Bismarck with dreams of a career in the misogynistic world of newspaper journalism. Unprepared for the rough-and-tumble politics of North Dakota’s capital city, Cathy becomes enmeshed in intrigue with possible links to organized crime and politicians at the highest level of the state’s government. Add murder and arson, coupled with the fascistic propensities sweeping America, and Cathy’s plate teems with peril. Join her as she endeavors to negotiate a mountain of obstacles. Discover whether Cathy conquers the massive challenges or plummets into a calamitous abyss.

The ancient Roman poet Horace declared that the mission of art is to both educate and delight, a challenge that David Wess expertly fulfills in his new novel, Dust Bowl Disorder – a suspenseful story that is both informational and entertaining. Dust Bowl Disorder offers us a smart and engaging young woman, Cathy Miller, who, while supporting herself in college in the early 1930s, ingeniously solves a murder mystery. Through meticulous research, the novelist conjures life in the early 1930s in what was, surprisingly, the most socialistic state in the country. He also draws disturbing parallels between American authoritarianism in the 1930s and the present political crisis, showing the fragile nature of democracy. “Hindsight has taught me,” Cathy ruefully discovers, “that history, even that which is eminently clear, is a flawed teacher. Worse yet, people ignore it.” By contrast, David Weiss proves to be a masterful teacher, earning his readers’ gratitude.

Dr. Jeffrey Berman
Distinguished Professor of English
University at Albany – SUNY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dust Bowl Disorder is David A. Weiss’s eleventh novel, his third in the historical fiction genre. Weiss is a retired attorney who received his J.D. from New York University School of Law and his B.S. in mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.