By Clyde Noel

Town Crier Correspondent

Review

Anyone who has ever attended a community college should feel at home with Jack Hasling’s first novel “Hillview,” set on a community college campus. Hasling taught communication skills, including radio broadcasting, at Foothill College for 25 years, including the Vietnam era - a time to shake your fist and vent your anger. He drew on this experience to create the background for his story.

The novel is set in the late 1960s, a time of broken marriages and of people who needed a place to find emotional healing, training for employment and a new social life.

They found it all in California’s community colleges. In a short time, that generation became the skilled work force that transformed Santa Clara County into Silicon Valley.

In the midst of this social revolution, Andy Tucker attempts to teach language arts and serve as faculty advisor for the local community college radio station. Tucker, 39 and divorced, is facing his own identity crisis.

After sitting through countless meetings and endless discussions on the mission of the community college, Tucker forms his own: helping adults get back on track.

Lisa Jacobs, Harry Cleever and Christine Hartford are part of the changing enrollment. Their attempts to resolve the conflicts in their differing lives while getting an education provide a challenge for the professor.

The three meet in Tucker’s values class where serious conflicts arise. Hartford steals papers from Tucker’s file cabinet. Cleever threatens Tucker with a lawsuit because he doesn’t like the grade he received. Cleaver also becomes menacing when he brings a gun to class.

“Hillview” ($15.95) is available at www.iUniverse.com or by calling toll-free 1-877-823-9235.