James Betz is the Pennington-raised author of the 2020 novel “Ralston Heights,” a book that the now-Princeton Junction resident calls a “hybrid of supernatural horror and historical fiction.”
That history deals with the stranger-and-creepier-than-fiction regional presence of Webster Edgerly (1852 to 1926), a self-appointed 19th-century health guru who advocated Ralstonism — an acronym based on the words “regime, activity, light, strength, temperation, oxygen, and nature.”
What is missing from the name is the racist beliefs that Edgerly supported and his desire to create a utopian colony around his castle-like mansion in Hopewell.
Betz, who says in a statement that he works full-time in the cannabis industry, recently announced the publication of “A Party on Redd Street,” again mixing regional history and fiction.
This time around, Betz has written a story of Cold War intrigue. The central character is the daughter of Joseph Stalin.
As Betz explains in a statement, “Back in 2016, I learned that Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva (the only daughter of Joseph Stalin) was once living in a house on the same street as my childhood home in Pennington, NJ. Even though she left the neighborhood just a few years before my family moved to town, I was blown away by every last detail. It’s still beyond surreal.
“After learning such an incredible fact, I entered a perpetual state of amazement. I kept inquiring until I learned everything pertaining to Svetlana’s remarkable yet inimitable life. Initially, my main intention was to investigate the reason behind her defection in March of 1967. Since it occurred at the height of the Cold War, the entire world was captivated when such a high-profile individual left behind her life in the USSR to live in the United States under the grounds of political asylum. While Pennington happens to be the epitome of my youth, Svetlana spent most of her childhood behind the red walls of the Moscow Kremlin.
“Before reading Svetlana’s biography by Rosemary Sullivan, my incentive was to inquire the mystery behind the enigmatic yet fascinating life of Stalin’s only daughter. I read several books on the Russian Revolution, Lenin, the Soviet Union, Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika reforms, as well as the ubiquitous nature of Joseph Stalin’s haunting yet everlasting personality cult. Svetlana happened to be the only known daughter of history’s most brutal tyrant. However, decades before Stalin’s despotic reign over the USSR, her father was a completely different person.”
“Originally named Iosib Besarionis dze Jughashvili, he left the Georgian Orthodox Church due to his enthusiasm for socialist literature. During his time at the Tiflis Theological Seminary, he befriended a fellow student by the name of Lado Ketskhoveli, who admired the works of Karl Marx. Long before her father took the name Stalin, or ‘man of steel’ in Russian, he was a Georgian theological student who descended from an alcoholic cobbler and an illiterate seamstress in Gori, Georgia (at the time Stalin was born, Georgia belonged to the Russian Empire). Believe it or not, Stalin’s mother wanted her only surviving son to become a priest. As you can tell, that didn’t work out as planned.”
“Due to his cruel, violent, and merciless reputation, it did not take long for Vladimir Lenin to acknowledge Stalin’s bold and intransigent methods. No one knew that he would eventually become the most brutal dictator in world history. By the late 1920’s, Stalin found a way to oust his rivals (especially Leon Trotsky) and consolidate power until his death in 1953.”
Betz begins his book as follows:
“Although Christina lived less than a mile away, her pace quickened. By the time she started her car, dark feelings of paranoia were beginning to sweep over her. Christina sensed she was being chased. She was close to home, yet she felt as if she had to cross rivers and oceans to get there. It was impossible for her to determine what might be waiting for her around the corner. She wanted to avoid all possibilities of trouble, yet she had no idea which neighborhood the police were patrolling.
Christina noticed several cars parked along Weston Avenue. At first, she assumed someone was having another graduation party. However, after seeing a pregnant couple standing in a driveway, it was obvious that a young family was bidding farewell to their visiting family and friends. Christina’s best friend, Annie McGrath, lived in a cozy house surrounded by several neighbors. The young couple lived in a house that once belonged to Christina’s fourth-grade teacher.
She spent the last three hours watching television with her best friend. Since they had the house to themselves, the afternoon was filled with smoking joints and incessant laughter. After leaving, Christina observed the houses lined up and down the street. While driving away from Annie’s house, Christina tried to speculate how the neighborhood would appear in future decades.
Once she approached the intersection of Hitchcock Street, Christina saw a police vehicle driving perpendicular her blue 1981 Volvo 240 GL. The officer glanced at her before turning away. They made eye contact for less than a second but for Christina, it felt significantly longer. Illusory fantasies danced with irrational fears until the police car faded out of sight. After the car disappeared, Christina’s fidgety fingers fiddled with the car stereo until she found something that eased her worrisome mind.
Considering how much Christina Apollonia Serletti loved music, it did not take long for the music to calm her down. Her favorite radio station was playing. “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears. The song was more than two years old, but Christina found herself appreciating the lyrics more than she ever did. It was the weekend before her high school graduation, and the summer of 1987 was just a few days away. The excitement was incomparable to any other phase of her young life.
After crossing Hitchcock Street, Christina continued down Weston Avenue until her eyes noticed the mesmerizing skyline of Queenstown, New Jersey. Through her dirty windshield, Christina acknowledged the unique qualities of her hometown. Aside from its boring, suburban reputation, the bedroom community of Queenstown was a beautiful and safe place to grow up.
Christina could already sense the nostalgia creeping up on her. Since she spent the first 18 years of her life in one place. both in her mind and heart, she valued the fact that Queenstown was the only familiar environment in her immediate world. Every single street was accompanied by several anecdotes and legends. Christina archived a plethora of treasured memories and sentimental moments dating back to the early 1970’s. Albeit months away from an irrevocable change, Christina tina conceded to the fact that the small village of Queenstown was the only place she considered home.
After crossing Main Street, she continued driving down Weston Avenue until making a right turn onto Douglas Avenue. Christina lived at 9 Orchard Street, so she needed to make one final right turn. By the time she pulled into her driveway, Christina saw a police vehicle driving past her house. Although it was not the same police vehicle she saw on Hitchcock Street, she was relived to be home. Following a brief catharsis, Christina quickly retrieved her most recent expenditure from her black purse.
Once the police car disappeared, Christina stepped outside and leaned against the trunk of her car. The late afternoon sunset unveiled a blissful hue of heavenly gold. With zero neighbors in sight, she wasted no time hesitating. There were a row of tall pine trees standing between the street and her front lawn, so she felt a lot safer once the police vehicle drove away. Christina pinched her lips to secure the joint while lighting the other end. After exhaling the second puff, she began feeling significantly better than before.
Although nobody was home, Christina felt a bit nervous walking inside. The paranoia made her feel as if someone was waiting to attack her.”
A Party on Redd Street, James Betz, 180 pages, $19.99, Farfallina Press.
To learn more about James Betz and his book “Ralston Heights,” read the September 16, 2020, interview with him from the U.S. 1 archives.
