Angela's Pride

Book excerpt: Angela Culver left this world with one last wish. She requests that her five sons, all born of different fathers, embark on a seven-day, 275-mile bicycle trip across southern Iowa. She knows she failed them as a mother, protector, provider, and source of comfort while she was alive, but Angela now wants them to rediscover the importance of family. The five half-brothersRobert, Herbert, Philbert, Tolbert, and Albertlive separate and very diverse lives from each other. They must each gather the emotional, physical, and psychological strength to complete the ride. The journey from the Missouri River to the Mississippi River creates not only sore, tender muscles but also conjures aching, tender memories. To succeed in this trek, they must be able to forgive: forgive Angela for her failures as a mother, forgive one anothers youth for the roles each played against the others, and forgive themselves for the self-contempt that they have been carrying since escaping the house of their childhood. They learn about themselves and each other, and they begin to form the bonds that might allow them to be full brothers to each other.