William Nichols

Fleeing Ohio William Nichols

Fleeing Ohio tells the story of a breakout from Ohio's highest security prison, its supermax. The narrative suspense is driven by two questions: Why would a middle class Oregon family get involved in an apparently suicidal escape attempt? And will the breakout succeed? Daniel Caputo, young architect and musician, is the unlikely escapee. His father, Luke Clark, is a civil engineer who returned from thirteen months of Marine reconnaissance in Vietnam to find he was no longer a responsible husband and father. Sara Caputo, Daniel's mother, a music teacher in Portland, plays in a local band. She invites Luke's brother Matt, the story's narrator, to help raise Daniel. Matt is a gay anthropologist who studies the culture of boredom. Believing his son is going mad in isolation, Luke, who considers himself a descendant of Captain William Clark, develops a desperate escape plan modeled after the Lewis and Clark Expedition.