Jimmy Ray Watson grew up on a farm in a rural Missouri between the Great Depression and the beginnings of WWII. His mother left when he was very young, no longer willing to accept both the physical and mental abuse of his father. A Long Road Home author, Roy Akers, guides us through the often violent life of Jimmy Ray, from childhood to adulthood. As the story progresses, the reader is able to see how Jimmy Ray grows up to understand and accept the importance of feelings previously unknown to him as a young child. He encounters anger, compassion, absolute terror, friendships won, friendships lost, trying to give love and accept it, all the while having to live with the nightmares of not just one, but two wars.
