Pet Rock

This book is an attempt to re-create the essence of what life was like for an American family living in Zambia during the early 197Os. While it must be acknowledged that Pet Rock is semi-autobiographical--after all, my family, like the Petersons, lived in Zambia, and I, like Carrie, was sent away to the United States for school--the events dramatized are nevertheless completely imaginary, as are the characters involved. Even Carrie, who grew directly out of my own emotional remembrance, is not really me. And yet, although it doesn't tell "what actually happened," Pet Rock allows the reader to experience what it was like and to realize that things are not always what they seem. Whether speaking of governments, geological formations or families, the surface "reality" isn't always the same as the truth.