The Ruin is a story about bullying, damaged lives, and the tragic consequences that too often end in suicide or even the ultimate tragedy: school shootings. The Ruin begins with retiring English teacher Clifton Kelley caring for his class during a school lock down, because across town a boy is shooting classmates in the school cafeteria. Kelley flashes back 40 years to himself as a 14 year old boy, who after years of school-yard bullying, is driven to make the decision whether to aim his rifle at the boys who have bullied and beaten him or seek refuge from his rage by fleeing to the wilderness. The Ruin then becomes the story of his survival using the knowledge he has gained from his parents and the Museum at Mesa Verde National Park. For the next year he takes shelter in a cliff dwelling in the foothill canyons of Mesa Verde. There he gathers food, learns to hunt using a primitive weapon, stores food for the winter, and devises clothing to protect himself from the harsh mountain climate. The boy connects with the spirits of the long departed Ancient Puebloans whose dwelling he finds home. Spare time in his long days of solitude become a time of introspection, communing with nature, and creativity. In the end he is challenged to test his newfound confidence and consider new relationships.
About the Author: Kenneth Fenter is the author of the series An American Family in Japan: Gaijin! Gaijin!, Mo Ichi Do: Once More, and Suteindo Garasu: Stained Glass. Fenter feels is particularly well suited to tell the story in The Ruin. As a child, he attended a school at a one-room schoolhouse in rural Colorado, where he was the frequent victim of bullying. School violence would touch his life again years later when he was a teacher at Springfield High School where he had spent a majority of his working life. His retirement party was held on May 20, 1998, and one of the attendees was friend and colleague Faith Kinkel. Later that evening, she and her husband Bill, were murdered by their son Kip, who went to Thurston High the next day and killed two of his classmates and wounded 25 more. Faith had complained that her son was having a recurring problem with bullies who had tormented Kip in middle school and had resumed in high school. The point I'm trying to make in the book is that kids who go through persistent bullying ... at some point, hit rock bottom and have to decide what they're going to do to get their respect back, to get their lives back. In the character Clifton Kelley's case, when he hits rock bottom, he decides he has no alternative but do it on his own and, if he perishes, it won't be a whole lot worse than what he's feeling at the moment. He'll just see where it goes. And a year later he comes out of it standing tall.