A Worldwide Story

JOHN BARR’S COLDWELL Banker office illustrates a successful career in real estate as well as a decorated one in the military.

A sense of humor is also on display: A “complaints” sign is accompanied by a hand grenade. It’s inactive of course, but serves as a keepsake from the three tours he completed in Korea, where his collective experiences as a U.S. Army Intelligence officer helped shape the plot for his debut novel: “Summer of the Dragons.”

Love, loyalty, and betrayal are at the helm of this thriller, as are rich character development eclipsed by historical context: A U.S. army intelligence officer investigating anti-American sentiment and a biological attack.

The added complications of love in the form of a North Korean spy posing as a college professor adds a probable link to the attack. But don’t forget about politics and corruption: Two nations in pursuit of a peace treaty, blinded by their pursuits of the Nobel peace prize.

In addition to a landscape of espionage, romance, and corruption, the novel brings attention to the political historical landscape of the often-overlooked nation of South Korea.

For example, Barr asks: “What is the purpose of the continued U.S. military presence on the peninsula? Is it protected from the nuclear-armed North?” 70 years have passed since the Armistice Agreement put an end to fighting in the Korean War; Barr challenges us to question the future of a peace treaty.

Steeped in symbolism, the title connects the significance of the dragon in Asian culture as an archetype of wisdom, power, and dominance. The dragon further connects the two opposing characters and is the assigned nickname for Choi-Jae-ha, the North Korean assassin and special warfare infiltrator, who is known for his ability to survive impossible situations. “It’s what his peers called the luck of the dragon,” says Barr.

A mark of strength and resilience, the dragon also surfaces as a tattoo on the protagonist, the U.S. army intelligence officer Jesse Cullin.

“Though enemies, Jesse and Jae-ha share qualities that make them like opposite sides of the same coin—similar yet fundamentally different,” he says.

Truth in fiction aside, Barr has a biographical story of his own to tell. Namely, how did this native Long Islander and University of South Carolina graduate who called South Korea a home base, establish roots as a civilian in Mountain Lakes?

FIRST STOP: THE NEWSROOM

The great-grandson of a newspaperman, Barr followed suit, picking a journalism major and then switching to social sciences and history. After graduating from Coker University in Hartsville, South Carolina, he worked at the family newspaper, The Sikestown Standard, now The Standard Democrat. Here, Barr crafted human-interest stories and covered community events. He also put in time as an advertising representative, musing that being tasked with creating campaigns for John Deere tractor left him less than enthused. “Like Don Draper in Mad Men,” he quips.

But he wanted more.

“I just wasn’t quite sure what,” he says. “I thought joining the Army would be a great experience.”

At the recruiting office, Barr asked whether the Army had any opportunities for a journalist. The question roused immediate suspicion.

“The recruiter asked if I was planning to write a book about the Army,” he says. “He was wondering if that was my real motivation.”

Regardless, there were no openings in the journalism realm, not even for a somewhat related role of public affairs specialist.

After taking a practice vocational aptitude test, Barr was steered toward the Army Security Agency.

“I was told that it was one of the smartest and most selective branches in the Army,” he says. “You deploy overseas, receive bonuses for learning certain languages, get a top-secret clearance, and enjoy a few other perks. I said, ‘I’m in.’”

Barr enlisted in the Army in 1976 and studied Korean at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. Having mastered Korean, he was assigned to the Army Security Agency and deployed to South Korea to a region near the demilitarized zone. Throughout his advancing career, he held multiple roles, such as liaison to South Korean intelligence agencies, and completed a tour with the National Security Agency. Barr was honorably discharged in 2001.

CREATING A FOUNDATION

In addition to his novel, his military career is also responsible for his marriage. He met his wife, Yong Suk during his time in the military, and the two married in South Korea.

20 years in the making, the novel took a nudge from Barr’s oldest daughter Keely for him to reunite with his pen and put it all to page. The book even includes a detailed glossary, which serves as a military, historical, and cultural guide for the reader.

“Summer of the Dragons” is available through Amazon as well as on loan at The Mountain Lakes Public Library.

In addition to captivating the reader, Barr is hoping that the book will shine a light on the often-overlooked nation of South Korea that lives in the shadow of its northern nuclear-powered tyrannical counterpart.

LIFE IN MOUNTAIN LAKES

As for his day job as vice president of Coldwell Banker, he is very much at ease, and the market is good, an upward trend as indicated in his latest reports.

His children have long since left the nest, and Barr and his wife have found themselves to be the proud grandparents to a toddler named Oliver.

As if responding to her childhood on the move, his youngest daughter developed a case of wanderlust of her own. She up and moved to Spain for two years.

When Barr is not immersed in real estate matters or writing, he continues to indulge his passions for history and politics. In the meantime, be on the lookout for a sequel.

“This one won’t take me 20 years to write,” he adds.

Spoiler alert: It’s called “Rise of the Hwarang.”

BY ELLEN S. WILKOWE