Revenge
of the Nerd?

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

Twenty-some years ago, Frank Diamond cut his journalistic teeth writing for the Times, back when the newspaper’s ramshackle office was on Frankford Avenue near Rhawn Street and Frank Rizzo was a "spent rocket" on the verge of making a political comeback.
Now the managing editor of Managed Care magazine and a weekly columnist for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Diamond, 50, revisited the locales of his youth to create a story about the ultimate nerd’s attempt at fashioning a life for himself, no matter how much it resembles someone else’s, in his novel The Pilgrim Soul.
The mystery artfully hooks readers, taking them along on Wally Snyder’s journey to find out who killed a popular high-school jock after a 15-year school reunion, who’s trying to kill him, and the discovery of Wally’s courageous self along the way.
In a typical nod to his Northeast roots, Diamond writes:
The traffic on Roosevelt Boulevard, the background noise of my childhood, was the sound that greeted me as I went into St. Ambrose’s Church the morning my mother was buried.
The Northeast functions as a place that holds allure for Diamond’s Olney-bred characters. He does tweak the identities of some of his settings — Cardinal Dougherty High School, for example, is known as Cardinal Sterling in the novel.
"As the tale opens, my main character, Wally, lives in Fox Chase with his mother. One of his love interests, Linda, moves to Somerton as a child. An important scene takes place at Fox Chase Bank (the name is disguised in the book) on Rhawn Street," Diamond said.
According to the author, the central theme of the book — and a central question for all men — is whether they have courage.
"If a man doesn’t have courage, he questions whether he’s really a man," he said.
Diamond is quick to point out, however, that he is not main character Wallace Snyder, a lifelong target of bullies that wound up living in his parents’ basement reading comic books by day and working in a bubblegum factory by night.
He did, however, write what he knows.
The wisdom was shouted above the roar of the factory’s floor from someone appearing in a cloud of cornstarch. The powder was patted on the pieces of gum to keep them from sticking. Cornstarch clung to your clothes, your hair, your keys, your wallet. By the end of the day, it seemed as if you rolled in it . . . .
From his prose, there is no denying that Diamond had spent considerable time in a bubblegum factory. After graduating from Cardinal Dougherty in 1975, Diamond took a job at the Fleer Corp. bubblegum factory, which manufactured Dubble Bubble gum and Razzles candy at 10th and Somerville.
Diamond also drew on his older brother’s letters and death in the Vietnam War to capture the emotion and driving purpose of other characters in the book. He was just 12 when Charles, whom he called "Chick," died in the war. He was a medic known as Doc to his Vietnam buddies.
I believe Nacho was killed instantly. Chaz, I understand, died at the Aid Station. The third person injured lived. He was sent home due to his wounds. I have never heard or read any official account of the attack, but what I believe happened is that a young Vietnamese boy (I never saw him) sneaked along the hedgerow that was close to Chaz and Nacho and threw a hand grenade over the hedgerow. This hand grenade landed behind Chaz and Nacho, probably five feet away or less. They may have heard it hit the ground but could not have seen it because of the poncho liner they had set up as a sun-shade . . . .
Many of those exact words were written to Diamond, some 30 years later, by a man whose letter described the day Chick died for him. Writing about Vietnam in The Pilgrim Soul wasn’t really a catharsis for Diamond. That came with a lengthy story he wrote about his brother in the May 1, 2000 issue of the Daily News, a story that coincided with the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.
Diamond’s 203-page novel grew from Paradise Lost, part of a collection of short stories titled Damage Control that he self-published in 2005. The Pilgrim Soul also is a self-published project.
Diamond didn’t have the patience to go the traditional publishing route. He is not writing to make a lot of money.
"I don’t expect to sell a lot of books. I’ll never get rich but I still love it — writing in the zone and growing as a person," he said. "That happens when you bring your best talents to challenge." ••
Frank Diamond can be reached by e-mail at fpdiamond@yahoo.com For more information about "The Pilgrim Soul," visit the Web site www.lulu.com/content/927892
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com