Joseph Sciuto's Blog: A Curious View: A Compilation of Short Stories by Joseph Sciuto, page 13

“THE FITZGERALDS AND THE KENNEDYS,” BY DORIS KERNS GOODWIN.

I have read quite a few books on the Kennedys but, in my opinion, nothing compares to Ms. Goodwin’s, “The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys.” It is a project that took her nine years to complete. The writing, insights, analysis, and the totality of the book is truly amazing which shouldn’t surprise me since Ms. Goodwin is one of the great historians of our time and her biographies on Lincoln, LBJ and Theodore Roosevelt are among my favorite biographies.

The biography begins with the Fitzgerald family arriving from Ireland in the 1850’s and settling in the North End of Boston where conditions were so bad that thirty five out of every one hundred children died before the age of five and the prejudice against Catholics and Irish immigrants was despicable, as was the prejudice against the Italians, Blacks, and Jews.

The Fitzgerald’s moved up in Boston society as a result of John Fitzgerald, Rose’s father, who became an employee of one of the big bosses in the district and who oversaw the young Fitzgerald’s gradual climb up the ladder of politics and eventually becoming the mayor of the city.

Rose would eventually marry Joseph Kennedy whose ambition was insatiable and whose business successes and wealth would make his family’s name synonymous with those of J.P. Morgan and the Rockefeller’s. The details that Ms. Goodwin’s many characters, especially of the Kennedy family and their children, is done with such clarity and personal recollections that by the end of the biography you feel like you have a personal relationship with all of them.

In the truest sense this is a biography of the immigrants who arrived on the shores of America and were treated, in many ways, in such a manner that one could only describe it as inhumane, and by the time Jack Kennedy becomes president these same immigrant groups would become the foundation that built the greatest industrial nation on earth.

Ms. Goodwin toward the end of the book quotes Melville who said, “We are the heirs of all time, and with all nations we divide our inheritance. On this Western Hemisphere all tribes and people are forming into one federated whole; and there is a future which shall see the estranged children of Adam restored as the old hearthstone in (an American) Eden … The seed is sown and the harvest must come.”

ALICE HOFFMAN’S, “ANGEL LANDING.”

“Angel Landing,” By Alice Hoffman is the first book I have read by this magnificent writer that I did not like, and I have read at least ten previous books by her. I did not hate it, and at times it really seemed promising but in the end it just wasn’t the home run her other books were for me. The supporting characters were great and the descriptions of Long Island were wonderful and occasionally the dialogue was great, but the love story between Natalie, an attractive therapist and Michael, a recluse whose conversations at times consist of a few words and prefers to be alone was torturous for this reader and hard to believe. Maybe if I looked at their relationship through the theory of psychoanalysis I might be able able to see the attraction, but at the moment I just don’t have the time for that.

ALICE HOFFMAN’S, “FORTUNE’S DAUGHTER.”

An early gem, published in 1985, from this prolific, amazingly gifted novelist. A juxtaposition between the lives of two ladies: Rae, a young, unmarried woman, with an off again, on again relationship with her boyfriend, who has once again deserted her when he finds out she is pregnant with his baby, and Lila, a middled-aged, married lady who still regrets the baby she was forced to give up for adoption when she was eighteen years old.

Full with an abundance of nature and its relationship to human behavior, a heavy touch of the supernatural and the reading of fortunes through tea leaves, and at its center an amazingly powerful story of the love between a child and its mother and how the lost (death) of a child is a sorrow that a mother never gets over. Beautifully written!!!!!!!

“THE SISTERS OF AUSCHWITZ,” BY ROXAND VAN IPEREN.

I have read numerous books on the Holocaust, seen a few good movies about the Holocaust, and had extensive talks with a dear friend of mine who recently passed away who spend a good deal of his childhood in Auschwitz…not to mention other Holocaust survivors who I have talked to and learned their stories.

You might think after so much exposure to this era in history that I might be somewhat immune to new stories about the atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jews, and other groups such as the Gypsies, and Communist; and yet the last thing I am is immune. If anything I have become more embittered and disgusted by the actions of the Germans…about the inhumanity they showed they were capable of against fellow human beings.

Back in the 80’s when I still had grand plans about visiting as many countries in the world as possible, the only three countries I said I would never visit were Germany, Japan, and Italy. The atrocities they committed against fellow human beings I could never forgive.

When people would ask me that if I was German or Japanese, and put into the same circumstances, do I actually think I wouldn’t have followed the orders to kill? My answer was always the same, “That one never knows but I would hope to God that I would have the courage to say ‘no,’ and let them take my life before I killed innocent women and children.”

The idea that all German and Japanese citizens were not complicit in the actions of their country men and leaders does not fly with me. Unless you were among the resistance groups against these heartless bastards you were most certainly complicit.

As I got older my stance against these countries softened because I didn’t think the younger generations should have to pay for the crimes committed by their ancestors. And another factor was my advance knowledge of world history during the last 120 years. Sadly, the atrocities committed by the Germans and Japanese were not isolated. There was Turkey’s Holocaust against the Armenians, Stalin’s Holocaust against his own people and the Ukrainians and the Poles. Russia and Syria’s atrocities against Syrian dissenters and innocent children, women, and the elderly, and of course the European colonization of Africa as so brilliantly written about in “Heart of Darkness,” by Joseph Conrad.

And of course, America’s embrace of slavery that lead to a Civil War, and even after emancipation the prejudice and murder of blacks across the south and the introduction of the “Jim Crow Laws,” that limited blacks from voting and attending the same schools as whites.

Finally, a word about Roxane Van Iperen’s novel, “The Sisters of Auschwitz,” which in my opinion is one of the best books I have read about the Holocaust. It centers around two sisters, Janny and Lein Brilleslijper and their families and friends who form a network of resistance against the occupying Nazis who have invaded the Netherlands.

The book is an extensive look at how families are split up in the hope of surviving, children living apart from their mothers and fathers, friends of the resistance hiding out in different houses trying to escape the Nazis’ brutality. The hope that the Brilleslijper family and Jews throughout the country put into the Allied liberation of their country which seems like it might never come, and finally the deportation of the family and friends to Auschwitz. The scenes in the concentration camps are so real and horrifying that even this veteran of Holocaust history simply cringed with disgust and pity.

Ms. Iperen also shed’s light on Ann Frank’s family and how her and her sister died in the Bergen-Belsen camp, and how Janny and Lein were their friends and witnessed their deaths. The novel is based totally on facts, documents, letters, and interviews with the sisters and surviving members of their families and the resistance. Sadly, that is the saddest thing about this novel…that its story actually happened.

“WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE WAR SISTER?” BY DENNIS J. TURNER

“What did you Do In The War, Sister,” By Dennis J. Turner is a novel based on letters and documents written by Catholic Sisters, mainly living in Belgium and Italy during World War 2.

The story is told by a fictionalized Belgium nun, Sister Christina, who was born and raised in America and was stationed in a Belgium Convent and School before the war, and given the choice to leave and go back to America when the Germans first invaded she decided to stay.

She tells the story of a courageous and faithful group of nuns who hide many Jews who would have been victims of Hitler’s ‘Final Solution,’ who spy on the Germans and report their findings back to the allies, and who commit acts of sabotage.

Mr. Turner has written an engrossing and moving novel that gives us an inside look on what went on in many Catholic convents during the war. The women, sisters, are an example of many of the unsung heroes during the war, risking their lives and occasionally breaking their vows, to help the unfortunate and innocent.

ALICE HOFFMAN’S, “THE STORY SISTERS.”

What can I say? Ms. Hoffman is such an amazingly talented and accomplished novelist that where I am in awe of her ability, I always come away from reading her books somewhat in a stupor, mystified, and challenged.

“The Story Sisters,” is one of the best books I have read about a devoiced mother raising her three daughters, Meg, Claire, and the oldest Elv. The three sisters are just a few years apart and as young girls are very close, even making up their own language to speak to one another.

The transformation from childhood, to teenagers, to young adults is truly a depiction of the female mind that at times is so true that it is frightening.

Elv is a character that is so complicated yet fully realized that it is going to take me a while to put her aside.

Like everything I have read by Ms. Hoffman, I highly recommend this novel.

ANN HOFFMAN’S, “THE RED GARDEN.”

Ms. Hoffman’s, “The Red Garden,” is a series of short stories that span three hundred years, all connected, in one way or other, to the charming, mystical town of Blackwell, Massachusetts.

The town, foundered in 1750, by a courageous and brave woman, Hallie Brady, who was originally from England and had no fear of bears or deadly blizzards and passed over the treacherous Hightop Mountain with her companions and landed on the other side, disconnected from the rest of Massachusetts by the mountain, and found the town of Blackwell…which was originally named Bearsville.

The founding of Blackwell is the first story in the collection and the next thirteen stories, which take place in sequential order, ends at just about the turn of twenty-first century. The stories are seamlessly weaved together, with recurrent characters and descendants of these characters, leaving the reader in awe and hoping there was no end to the stories.

Ms. Hoffman is a prolific writer and I have read a lot of her books, and never once was I even the least bit dissatisfied with any of her novels. She possesses an acute knowledge of history and animal behavior and her characters are usually nothing short of fascinating. She, like the wonderful Ann Patchett, has a beautifully crafted writing style that young, aspiring writers could learn quite a bit from. “The Red Garden,” is very simply another stunning piece of writing from this superbly gifted writer.

“AND THERE WAS LIGHT,” BY JON MEACHAM

Review“In 1908, in a wild and remote area of the North Caucasus, Leo Tolstoy, the greatest writer of the age, was the guest of a tribal chief “living far away from civilized life in the mountains.” Gathering his family and neighbors, the chief asked Tolstoy to tell stories about the famous men of history. Tolstoy told how he entertained the eager crowd for hours with tales of Alexander, Caesar, Frederick the Great, and Napoleon. When he was winding to a close, the chief stood and said, “But you have not told us a syllable about the greatest general and greatest ruler of the world. We want to know something about him. He was a hero. He spoke with a voice of thunder; he laughed like the sunrise and his deeds were strong as the rock….His name was Lincoln and the country in which he lived is called America, which is so far away that if a youth should journey to reach it he would be an old man when he arrived. Tell us of that man.”

The above quote is taken from Doris Kearns Goodwin’s, “Team of Rivals:The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.” In my opinion one of the greatest biographies on the Sixteen President of the United States. It is telling tale of how famous President Lincoln had become, but unlike the other men Tolstoy told the chief about, Lincoln’s “deeds were strong as the rock.”

Jon Meacham’s “And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle,” is more like a memoir, a diary, written by this flawed but greatest of all presidents. It is so personal, that it left me shaken and next to tears. The research that went into this book is a testimony to Mr. Meacham’s love and awe of this one of a kind president, leader, and commander. 260 pages of this book are simply reference and index notes.

Unlike any book I have read on Lincoln, this book explores the inner workings and beliefs of Lincoln. He possessed a moral compass that might sway occasionally, but in the end it always landed on the righteous and virtuous nature of the man… righteous and virtuous nature we wish in all our leaders and find in so, so few. That is not to say that Lincoln was not an acute politician and depending on the audience swayed from some of his profound beliefs. He understood politics as well as anyone.

He was a man profoundly influenced by the Bible and Christianity, and often quoted from the Bible when making speeches, yet one could not for a fact say that he believed in a God, yet it was passages from the Bible and the Declaration of Independence that formed the foundation of his humanity: That all men are created equal, and in the eyes of a all forgiven God that all men regardless of race, religion, and education deserved to be treated the same and should never to be shackled and involuntarily detained as property.

When greeting the famous, once enslaved, Frederick Douglass at the White House, Mr Douglass said, “That President Lincoln stood up and shook my hand as an equal.”

While reading this great biography, I seriously wondered if any presidents of the United States even came close to the moral convictions of President Lincoln, or was he simply one of a kind like Babe Ruth. The only presidents that I could think of that even came close to Mr. Lincoln, were Presidents Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, and Joe Biden. Sadly, nearly 160 years after the death of President Lincoln, President Biden is facing a nation divided and like President Lincoln he believes that our country is strongest as a ‘united country’ not as a ‘divided one.’

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“MR. LAURENCE, I PRESUME…” BY JOSEPH SCIUTO

Eighteen-year-old Joe has taken a serious bump to the head, and his beloved girlfriend, Angie, has landed on the wrong side of the law as a result of an untenable situation.

How is a young couple supposed to start a life together when one of them is behind bars and the other is too immature to cope?

Enter Mr. Laurence, a mysterious veteran and charming philanthropist who brings magic and healing wherever he goes.

Beloved in the Long Island enclave where he continues his in-laws’ mission to save endangered children, Mr. Laurence and his scintillating wife, Isabelle, take Joe under their wing and help the young man chart a new direction toward success.

The ripple effects of Mr. Laurence’s generosity extend to everyone in Joe’s circle, and offers Angie a path to recovery. With the support of her “adopted family,” Angie becomes a survivor. She learns to cope with her demons and uses that power, not only to survive, but to thrive.

Inspired by Emily Brontë’s classic novel, “Wuthering Heights,” and the subsequent movie starring Sir Laurence Oliver, “Mr. Laurence, I Presume” tells a story of triumph over adversity, acceptance, the power of forgiveness and a love that not even death can conquer.

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON, BARNES AND NOBLE AND ALL FINE BOOKSTORES AND ONLINE

ANN PATCHETT’S, “THESE PRECIOUS DAYS.”

Ms. Patchett’s, “These Precious Days: Essays,” is very simply PRECIOUS. Whether it be her nonfiction, fiction, or essays, her work contains the one quality that all great writers are able to achieve and that is ‘honesty.’

Her insights into human behavior and how we humans interact with the environment we are a part of is reminiscent, in the strangest of ways, to Joseph Conrad’s works. Their styles of writing are completely different, but the affects of their work is very similar. Joseph Conrad is my favorite writer, and when I compare someone’s works to his that is the highest compliment I can pay to a writer.

Their is not an essay in Ms. Patchett’s collection that I did not like, but there are quite a few I found to be outstanding, such as the one titled ‘These Precious Days,’ which deals with Tom Hanks’ assistant Sooki Raphael’s fight with pancreatic cancer, during the Covid pandemic, and the amazing friendship that springs up between Ms. Patchett and Sooki over a three year period.

Another is “To The Doghouse,” which is about Peanut’s cartoon character, the amazing Snoopy and his transformations into Joe Cool, and into a World War 1 flying ace and his dogfights with the Red Baron, and his love of reading such classics as “The Heart Of Darkness.” Snoopy is a writer who often ends up on top of his doghouse with his typewriter typing “it was a dark and stormy night.”

Ms. Patchett started reading Peanut cartoons when she was still a child, but like Snoopy she followed his example that one does not have to write in a beautiful studio to be a great writer but anywhere you might get inspiration like on your kitchen table, and that even though Snoopy got rejection notices from publishers he never gave up and why, because like Mr. Patchett his imagination is too great and his brain is full with too much information and stories not to put down in writing.

Ms. Patchett seems like the kind of person you would meet and come away with the impressions of her, she leaves you to believe in these essays: a caring, loving, dedicated lady, with a big heart.

Sadly, if I ever did have a chance to meet her I would decide not to unless I could be around her for an extended period of time. I worked in a very famous restaurant (which was more like a saloon) with the best food in town. When given a chance to meet two of my idols, Paul McCartney and Frank Sinatra, I decided not to and the reason why is because if they seemed standoffish or unpleasant that experience would have an affect on me every time I heard their music. I simply could not take that chance.

Yet, some of the best pieces of writing I did were about superstars like Sam Shepard, Don Rickles, and Ray Liotta but with them I had the pleasure of talking to them for long periods of time and over years.

“These Precious Days: Essays,” are a must read for those familiar with Ms. Patchett’s works, and even for does who are not.