The Bottom of the Sky Book

The Bottom of the Sky, a gritty debut novel, is an aching rags-to-riches family saga that springs from rural Montana squalor into the power chambers of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Inside this human panorama unfolds the contrasting 30-year struggles of an abused sister and brother who, after one abandons the other, seek to claim themselves from their abhorrent legacy. It is a bare-knuckled tour de force. The novel deals head-on with childhood shame, promiscuity, prejudice and Wall Street's rape of Main Street. It is a tale of genius, madness and violence, one of extraordinary sacrifice and discovery in a quest for redemption. It is a journey of hidden destiny.

This poignant family journey watches dispossessed children become woman and man, rising and buckling from their condemnable legacy, craving what they cannot have, loving whom they must, hating what they cannot reconcile. Truth resides within their wounds. The Bottom of the Sky examines courage and commitment, treachery and savagery, both employed and suffered for survival and passion. Written by a native Montanan and former EVP of a Wall Street giant, it deals head on with incest, investment scams, classism, sexual harassment, conspiracies and brutality. It is taut and heart-wrenching and sometimes funny. It is tender and raw and surprising until the shocking end.

The Bottom of the Sky follows the journey of the Monroe family, young Levi and his sister, Lam, from a small impoverished existence in rural Montana to the high-powered world of Wall Street. Struggling with the pain of abandoning Lam behind at home, the scars of his childhood and his moral dilemmas follow Levi up the ladderof success. Eventually faced with his downfall, Levi returns to the place where his fire exulted to sift the ashes of guilt, hardships and buried secrets. It is a story of lives conjoined through time by tangled bonds, one crafted from the elements of sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness and solace.

Chris Rubich - Lee Newspapers

The Bottom of the Sky reads like a top-notch book from a well-seasoned author far into a career . . . .His strong development of characters and vivid use of landscape are evident from the opening lines of the prologue of the book . . . .We easily see Pack's characters as whole, though tormented, individuals with hopes, longings, temptations and deep, deep disappointments. And the settings come to life . . . .Pack's rich writing is made more so by his use of symbolism - not forced as in so many modern novels, but skillfully woven into the heart of the book . . . talk of the investment industry becomes an understandable and compelling journey into the corrupting power of money . . . .Pack brings it all together in a debut that deserves national attention.