Surviving Joy

"Surviving Joy" is the first novel in over ten years by J.P. Miller, the celebrated author of "Days of Wine and Roses," featuring a hugely likable character whose story, for reasons peculiar to his origins, he feels needs to be told - warts, embarrassments, ecstasies and all - with no holds barred. It is the story of the early life of Dub Johnson, a.k.a. Tex Frontere, a mannish boy trying to find his way in and about Depression-era Houston, Texas. Dub, who is by turns a brilliant student, eager if naive lover and amateur prize-fighter, is in danger of losing himself in a passion that once…