Author returns with sequel to Czech Village novel

When I wrote about Karen Roth's first novel, “Found on 16th Avenue,” three years ago, I said I wanted to know what happened to the main character, Joe Vesely.

I'm learning now, page by page, with an advance copy of her second novel, “My Portion Forever.”

Joe, born in Cedar Rapids, orphaned and raised in Czech Village during the Great Depression, has joined the Army. It's now 1942 and he's in England, preparing to fight in North Africa.

Karen, 53, also born in Cedar Rapids and raised around Czech Village, has lived in Texas for 29 years and teaches writing at the University of San Antonio. She's returning this week to make several appearances including one at 2 p.m. Saturday at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library at Lindale Mall.

Readers of the first book often asked Karen when to expect the next.

“Believe me,” she says. “I wondered that myself.”

The plot for the sequel had been developed before the first was even finished. Yet, it's not that simple - it must be written, a publisher must be found (Karen has self-published both books) and print must hit paper. There were plenty of discouraging times.

Karen says a burning desire to tell the story and the spirit of God powered her perseverance. But, most of all, she says via e-mail, it was her fondness for Cedar Rapids.

“What compels me to keep working,” she says, “is the memory of my father (Alvin Oujiri, who died in April) getting up in the morning after a heavy snowstorm, shoveling out the driveway at five in the morning so he and my mother could get to work on time.

“It's the memory of Cedar Rapidians who went back to their homes after the flood, rebuilding a city and showing the world what can happen when people have a mind to work.”

As a mother of four and grandmother of five, Karen also appreciates history's important role for the future.

“... it's up to us to build a good world for the generation that will follow,” she says. “And I think that a big part is what we learned from the generation that went before us - the ones who built, day by day and brick by brick, this amazing heritage of doing things right, not giving up when times get tough, and living with integrity.”

Thus, “My Portion Forever” follows Joe, a survivor of tough times as he becomes a World War II Army Ranger. And it introduces us to Sana Toledo, an Army nurse with Cedar Rapids ties, who crosses paths with Joe during the war and ...

Excuse me, but I've got a book to read.