Thompson School Professor Publishes First Novel
By Beth Potier, Media Relations
July 11, 2007
“Searching for Joy” Explores Father-Son Relationships, Cancer
Diagnosis
Tim Barretto, associate professor of communications at the Thompson School
of Applied Science, has published his first novel, “Searching for
Joy” (Beech River Books, 2007). He is the first TSAS faculty member
to publish a work of fiction.
Set in Portsmouth, “Searching for Joy” focuses on father-son
relationships and the things most meaningful in life. The novel explores
the difficult issues Tom Derringer, an architect, must deal with when he
discovers he has prostrate cancer. Normally confident and self-assured,
Derringer is shaken and forced to confront the meaning of his life and
the possibility of his death. In the process he must come to understand — and
come to terms with — himself, his wife and his son.
Drawing from the author’s favorite pastimes, “Searching for
Joy” uses vivid scenes of fly fishing, skiing, and the complicated
tensions of family to show how learning to enjoy life and to have a passion
for living is one of the finer gifts one generation can pass on to another.
“Several years ago in Utah, I looked up the ski slope, a very steep
pitch with deep powder, and watched these two figures skiing with grace
and power and self-assurance,” Barretto recalls. “After a moment
I realized the two skiers were my sons, and I was struck by two things:
their styles were uniquely their own, not mine, and it was obvious they
had learned to love to ski. I found this both humbling and rewarding, for
they had surpassed me in precisely that way a father both welcomes and
dreads. I hope the book in some way speaks to this inevitable paradox between
fathers and sons.”
Barretto adds that he has been overwhelmed by the interest in his book
by men and their families who are dealing with prostate cancer. “Prostate
cancer is far more prevalent than I thought when I worked it into the plot
of my book,” he says. “Survival rates are increasing, but the
treatment can be very aggressive and involve extremely difficult and life-changing
decisions for men.”
Barretto has taught at TSAS since 1986. Currently he is one of two full-time
faculty members teaching in the school’s Community Leadership program,
which he co-founded with colleague Kate Hanson in 2001. He has lived in
Dover since 1979; there he has coached baseball, served on numerous local
boards and committees, and helped found the HUB Family Resource Center,
to which he plans to donate ten percent of the profits he receives from
the book.
“Searching for Joy” (Center Ossipee, NH: Beech River Books.
2007, ISBN: 0-9793778-4-6) is available at local bookstores (UNH Bookstore
and Durham Book Exchange in Durham, Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, and
River Run Bookstore in Portsmouth) or by calling toll-free 1-888-874-6904.
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