"Grabbing at Water"
Set against the backdrop of the decaying hulks of the steel mills that once gave his hometown a throbbing vitality, Drew Timmons finds his spirit has fallen into similar disrepair. Having fled to the Navy to escape the creeping, cancerous malaise of unemployment and despair that inexorably destroyed his mother, his father, and, ultimately, his entire town, Drew returns to Pittsburgh to discover that he has not yet freed himself from the ghosts from his past. Grabbing at Water is ultimately a rumination on the nature and power of love, the pain of loss, and the value of life.
"Drew glanced out the window; he could still feel the biker-guy’s eyes on him. The bus was approaching the final stop before leaving downtown. It was situated at the corner of Stanwix Street and the Boulevard of the Allies, adjacent to the sparkling PPG Place. Drew studied the five high-rise buildings that made up the complex. Their facades consisted of emerald green, plate glass and were topped with towers and turrets like a castle. While most observers mooned over the architecture, to Drew it was just one more example of the city planners attempt to erase any memory of the town’s blue-collar heritage. Steel city? What steel? Welcome to Disneyburgh! The fact of the matter was that without the steel mills that had made it famous, Pittsburgh was just any other mid-sized, Northeastern city."