Mixed Freight is one man’s metaphor for his life’s journey from city boy to country gentleman. Novelist and film writer Paul Klein brings his well-honed skills of observation and description to the world he has inhabited for three-quarters of a century (and counting!). In this collection of essays he interprets society, politics, economic, the natural world and, of course, himself. Candid, humorous and imaginative, Klein’s personal point of view makes up a mixed freight readers can carry on their own life’s journey.
Telling part of his own story, Klein writes “When I was very young I wanted to be an architect, live on a farm, and own a radio station. When I grew up I studied architecture, became a film writer, and retired to a farm. Overall, not bad. I have designed and built houses (including the one we live in), had sheep and chickens in the dooryard, and written and produced more than 500 films about industry, labor, agriculture, religion, history, politics, medicine, art and travel. And then I retired. (One of the essays in “Mixed Freight” defines retired as “being tired again”). For most of the last twenty years I have been learning the craft of writing without pictures: essays, short stories and novels.”In 2007, my first novel was published: Accidents of Time and Place. My latest work, Mixed Freight, is a collection of essays (some previously published) that reflect my very personal views about society, government, economics, the natural world and religion. My own film-of-memory without the pictures. The result, perhaps, of three-quarters of a century of observing and describing my world.”
Klein and his wife have lived in Highland County for the past 20 years or so, the 1st of 3 generations of his family that call the Valley home.
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