Set in the suburban shadows of New York City as the 1980s crash into the ‘90s, The Punk & the Professor brings us into the world of a troubled yet driven young man.
Jack Tortis is an underdog branded as a punk in a place where sameness is celebrated. Destined to be a dropout laborer like his estranged father, he clings to hope and fights against a tide of dysfunction. But just as life starts to move along, obstacles spring up around him.
Book Summary:
Set in the suburban shadows of New York City as the 1980s crash into the ‘90s, The Punk and the Professor brings us into the troubled world of a young introvert. Jack Tortis is an underdog branded as a punk in a place where sameness is celebrated. Destined to be a dropout laborer like his estranged father, he clings to hope and fights against a tide of dysfunction as obstacles spring up around him. In a battle for survival, Jack is faced with three options—fall into the street life, join the world of service labor, or fight his way through school.
Where we end up in life is often too predictable—but sometimes an opportunity comes along that changes our fate, and sometimes it takes starting all over again to get it right. The story of the punk is framed by a professor reciting an ancient tale that inspires us to see past the shadows, question all we think we know, and distinguish reality from illusion.
Reviews:
"Great, gritty coming of age story that shows how the human spirit and determination can overcome life's obstacles." - Ray McCarthy, Doctor of Education
"The Punk and the Professor is a classic coming-of-age story...The book is well-written, engaging, and immensely successful in breathing fresh live into a well-established genre." PWL review on Amazon
"'The Punk and the Professor' by Billy Lawrence is a masterful tale, written sophistically..." Amazon review by Taylor Thomas
"A humbling invitation to become fully human and alive in that process...." JT Amazon review
The Allegory
The professor clarifies—
We’re all in the cave. The puppet-masters control our world. They’re the ones with confidence; they’re the ones selling something. But even they are inside their own caves and don’t clearly see the world for what it is. They are the biggest fools because they think they have something over everyone else.
The professor takes a good look at the students and then asks, What do you think it will take to get us to see?
The wheels turn in one student’s eyes. He closes them and remembers.
The Cave
IT WAS A CLEAR SUNNY DAY in late May, but the inside of that school felt subterranean. Some rooms had an unobstructed window to look out of— initial joy for the view of the sky— blue all around from the bottom to the top of the window— only to be followed by the sinking recognition that plexiglass stood between us and nature. It was a glimpse of the world out there. We were caged in that building like broken animals gone from the jungle far too long.
— Chapter 1
Unchained:
A stuttering little boy spells out the word butterfly for the first time.
My brother’s smile.
A faded black and white photograph of six smiling friends, a world ahead of them. The Kennedy brothers on each end. Steven and Paul to my left. Gene to my right. Me in the middle.
Wrestling. Guns N’ Roses. Running free on the track.
The beach. The bay. The birds.
Long Island in the shadow of the city.
The nineteen eighties crashing into the nineties.
A girl in a Catholic school dress stands there laughing and talking with her girlfriends. She doesn’t see me, but I see her. She has long straight brown hair, eyes the color of a forest, and a smile that captures me. Something inside feels funny.
A horn blared and a light flashed——
—My swollen eyes stretched open. My face muscles were numb, and my lips were tight and chapped. A layer of frost covered my hair. The car approached and its window opened. I struggled to roll my window down.
“You gotta go. Can’t stay here. Get on now.”
“No problem,” I said.
The security guard couldn’t even let me stay in the empty lot, but I didn’t complain. The guy had saved my life. Another hour or so and I would have frozen to death for sure. I turned the ignition, cranked the heat, and then drove off to the safety of the twenty-four hour diner with twenty dollars in my pocket and several hours to waste before the rest of the world woke.
— Chapter 64
