Book Video: Felicia's Prince of the Morning Star, author Rufus Diagle

The world into which Angelo Lafleur is born in 1948 is not an easy one.

Angelo's mother, Vidol, with only a sixth-grade education, cleans house

for the white people who live across the tracks. Raising Angelo and his

siblings is a struggle, and Angelo vows that one day he will be rich

and will make everyone pay for his poor status in life. As Angelo grows

he yearns to become an artist, but in his teens, he hears the call of

the military. He wants to accept the pain and experience the denial and

the discipline. As a Marine Corps soldier, Angelo serves his country in

the Vietnam War, witnessing events that will haunt his nightmares for

the rest of his life. A coming-of-age story, Felicia's Prince of the

Morning Star explores the damaging psychological effects of racism and

poverty and all of its complexities as seen through the eyes of a

sensitive and artistic young black artist. It examines horrors and

destruction of war and its lasting legacy on the human psyche through

the troubled and soulful voice of a young man searching for life's

meaning.