Maynard's House
Encyclopedia
Maynard's House is a horror novel by Herman Raucher
. The book is the story of a young Vietnam War
veteran, Austin, suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder who learns that his best friend, the eponymous Maynard, has been killed in combat; in his will, Maynard leaves the narrator his house, a historical site in which a woman accused of witchcraft was killed around the time of the Salem Witch Trials
. Austin moves into the house, and shortly thereafter is trapped when an unexpectedly strong winter storm sweeps in. Isolated in the home, the narrator begins to try to come to terms with the trauma of the things he witnessed in combat, and grows increasingly paranoid that the home might be haunted by the murdered witch.
The themes of a man troubled by his inheritance of something belonging to a dead soldier, and of a man's best friend being killed in war, are ones that run in many of Herman Raucher's works, and are implicitly tied to traumatic events in his own life: He lost his virginity to a traumatized war widow, and his best friend, an army medic, was killed in combat in the Korean War
on Raucher's birthday.
Herman Raucher
Herman Raucher is an American author who has written several screenplays, among them the popular Summer of '42 and The Great Santini and several novels and plays...
. The book is the story of a young Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veteran, Austin, suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder who learns that his best friend, the eponymous Maynard, has been killed in combat; in his will, Maynard leaves the narrator his house, a historical site in which a woman accused of witchcraft was killed around the time of the Salem Witch Trials
Salem witch trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693...
. Austin moves into the house, and shortly thereafter is trapped when an unexpectedly strong winter storm sweeps in. Isolated in the home, the narrator begins to try to come to terms with the trauma of the things he witnessed in combat, and grows increasingly paranoid that the home might be haunted by the murdered witch.
The themes of a man troubled by his inheritance of something belonging to a dead soldier, and of a man's best friend being killed in war, are ones that run in many of Herman Raucher's works, and are implicitly tied to traumatic events in his own life: He lost his virginity to a traumatized war widow, and his best friend, an army medic, was killed in combat in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
on Raucher's birthday.