Seven Bowls of Rice

Book excerpt: Love, faith and rice, core ingredients of Louisiana culture, thicken the gumbo of survival for strikingly handsome LT. WHITNEY LANGLOIS, a south Louisiana French and Castilian Creole. This is a riveting story of survival of the Bataan Death March, three and a half years as a Japanese prisoner of war and three Japanese "hell" ships, two sunk by American bombs. Simultaneously Whitney's young wife Flo and family fight their own emotional and spiritual demons. They refuse to surrender to the darker forces; they refuse to give up.Based on a true story and filled with romance, reality and a few miracles, this is a story of passion, determination, and grit. It is Americana at its best as it blends cultures. The regional foods of south Louisiana bayou country and the tobacco country of South Carolina enrich the senses of the reader and the backgrounds of the characters. Rice, the staple of prisoners of war is the epicurean glue and a key to survival.