Former resident and Batesville native Jeff (yes, his name is now Jeff) Hockenheimer has published a book, An Invisible Star, “a fictional story of fictitious fiction,” with very  curious parallels to the author’s coming of age in the ‘50s, ‘60s and early ‘70s in Batesville.

Currently a New Orleans resident, Hockenheimer has drawn from childhood and adolescent memories to pen the “novel” in the small Mississippi town of “Delta.” His characters’ names, streets and landmarks may be familiar, or close to familiar, to those who know or were raised in the area.

The author pays tribute to “An Invisible Star”  with whom those of us coming of age  during the era are familiar.

A sampling of “localese” reads, “Tad Kirk went over to Calvin Jaudon’s house. Tad’s brother, John, was dating Calvin’s older sister Judy, who was every bit Libba Westley’s equal in the hubba-hubba department…”

The novel is somewhat nostalgic as it records trends of the times that some may have forgotten such as, “Saturday came, a day of cartoons in the morning with Tarzan, Shirley Temple, and Charlie Chan in the afternoon. Kids were fooling around in their yards, in their neighborhood, and going to the picture show. . .”

Most important, Hockenheimer pays tribute to his “Star” who obviously had a profound effect on him and his generation.

While we all look up to the stars, Hockenheimer finds an obscure one and uses his novel to record the illumination, sharing through his words a bright spot of his youth.

The book is published by Xlibris with copies available locally from Dale Copeland Jewelers or through Xlibris, Amazon, or Borders.