Uncommon Strangers is a book about becoming: boys becoming men, men becoming self-aware, men becoming better men. It is a story of a writer's life and the characters he has written into existence as Dorr Reed (the narrator's alter ego who is also a writer who has his own stories to tell), Jim Marsh (son of an unscrupulous lawyer), Michael DuQuesne (son of wealthy
and their families. Building on his own life story the author looks at the impact of growing up in a poor and dysfunctional family and engages his fictional characters in the pursuit of their own truths about themselves and their attempts to deal with the problems of the human condition while they search for answers to the essential questions we all face. Orson Welles is credited with saying, "Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for a moment that we're not alone." The author demonstrates in Uncommon Strangers that art, too, creates the necessary illusion.