The Summer of Ballads (1966) (Like Going Home)

"Summer of Ballads (1966)" is the first novella in the epic Sixties quartet Like Going Home, by one of the greatest undiscovered writers of that tumultuous era, William Francis ("Wild Bill") Mudon. Set in rural South Dakota, "Ballads" is a searing look at ranching and small town life as frontier values collide with the anti­-war movement and the determination of one of Pierre's best and brightest sons, Zeno, to become a conscientious objector. Based on his own experiences growing up on the prairie, Mudon's characters are sharply drawn, deeply felt, and so vividly described that "you can just taste that dusty wind blowing in Zeno's face," as one reader put it.