Joseph Sciuto's Blog: A Curious View: A Compilation of Short Stories by Joseph Sciuto, page 8

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN’S, “FROM BEIRUT TO JERUSALEM.”

Hands down, the best book I have read about Israel and Lebanon and the entire Middle East. I thought I knew a lot about this part of the world but this book proved just how little I knew.

Mr. Friedman, a New York Times reporter and contributor for over 40 years, dissects and illuminates, layer by layer the country of Israel, from the time of its creation in 1947 until 2012, and Lebanon (Beirut) from 1978 to 2012.

The book originally published in 1988 has been expanded a couple of times with Mr. Friedman meticulously analyzing its subjects right up to 2012. In the final pages of this book he literally predicts the current tragedy that is today’s headlines.

For people really interested in the back story behind today’s headlines this is the one book you should read. Amazing!!!!!!!!!

‘ENOUGH,” BY CASSIDY HUTCHINSON.

Over the ages, since homo sapiens started roaming planet earth there have been as many brave and courageous, brilliant and talented women as men. Cassidy Hutchinson, along with Liz Cheney, stand so prominently out because since the War of 1812 never has one political party, predominantly made up of men, exhibited such cowardly, subservient behavior as they bow down before a four time draft dodger, rapist, liar, tax cheat, insurrectionist, bully, illiterate, traitor, etc, as the former president and current leader of the Republican Party.

I was a little hesitant about reading Ms. Hutchinson’s memoir, “Enough,” simply because I thought I knew all I needed to know about this young lady, but I was totally wrong, which is not unusual.

If one does choose to read her memoir, which I highly recommend, I think it is important to remember that this young lady, at the tender age of 23, was an eyewitness…in the center… of the political malfeasance known as the Trump years. She was in all practical terms, the assistant Chief of Staff, to the subservient, deeply religious Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who never so much as had an alcoholic drink in his whole life.

Mr. Meadows, like many heroic figures throughout American history, decided on the day American democracy was at its most fragile, and innocent Capitol police officers were being hammered with the American flag, to do “Nothing,” he was in such fear and awe of the President of the United States. In all honesty, he was not the only one. There were plenty of others who could have prevented the insurrection on Jan 6, 2021 or at least put a stop to it but like, Mr. Meadow’s, did nothing. (In a side note: In Dante’s masterpiece “The Divine Comedy,” he places at the very bottom of hell, next to Lucifer, those that could have made a difference but did “NOTHING.)

But this is all old news, but what is not old news is how a 23 year old young lady, who in many cases put her blind trust in Mr. Meadows and President Trump, became the unlikely hero in this tragic story. Instead of prayers and denial of all alcoholic beverages, she possessed that most uncommon of traits in politicians, “morals.”

That is not to say she didn’t have her doubts and wasn’t scared shit, but in the end she looked into the mirror and decided she could not live with herself if she did not tell the unabridged truth about what she witnessed and heard previous to Jan. 6, on Jan. 6., and after.

“Enough,” gives us a full picture of Ms. Hutchinson from the time she was a little girl growing up in New Jersey, to her full out desire to succeed in Washington, D.C., to a realization and enlightenment that far too many republicans still have not accepted about Mr. Trump and his cronies.

I highly recommend Ms. Hutchison’s memoir.

GEORGIA SCOTT’S, “AMERICAN GIRL.”

A rich and evocative memoir; rich in symmetry and metaphor like a Yeats’ poem or T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” or “The Wasteland.” A memoir that should not be read in one sitting but multiple sittings over a number of days.

The story of a young girl and her relationship with her mother, much older siblings, relatives, friends, and school mates as she overcomes a number of illnesses and the death of her father through an overactive imagination and a desire to write everything down.

The setting is Belle Isle’s, a salt marsh, off the coast of Massachusetts where its unique plant life, wild life, and residents add a distinctive flavor to this beautiful piece of writing.

The memoir is in memory of Ms. Scott’s father but for me it also seems to be in memory of her beautiful mother and the togetherness they now share.

I highly, highly recommend it.

Dominique McCafferty Snapp’s,”Finding Sanctuary in Books”

“Despite my parents’ unhappy childhoods, they’d come to the independent conclusion that education was important, and that literacy opened doors.”

Dominique McCafferty Snapp’s essay on her parents love of books and how they passed that love down to Dominique and her siblings is a lovely, evocative story about the importance of books and the escape and wisdom they provide to the reader…removing one from a place of despair and unhappiness and into another world.

Absolutely lovely and rewarding.

https://inlandiajournal.net/summer-2023-vol-14-dominique-mccafferty-snapp. #inlandia

“GRAND CENTRAL,” BY SAM ROBERTS.

Whenever someone, who has never been to New York City, asks me what’s it like my standard response has always been the same: “Love it or hate it, it is the one place you should visit in your lifetime. There is nothing like it.”

OR

To quote Truman Capote, not word for word, but close enough, “I walk down any other street, in any other place, and I get a few images running through my mind every minute. I walk down a street in NYC and I get a thousand images passing through my mind every minute.”

Sam Roberts’ biography, “Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America,” is a comprehensive, engrossing, history of this famous terminal from it’s very beginning when river boat mogul Cornelius Vanderbilt decided to become a railroad magnate and built the terminal, around the late 1800’s, to just about present day, 2016, when an estimated one hundred million commuters pass through the terminal every year.

Back in the late 1970’s when I was a frequent visitor to Manhattan’s New York City Library’s annex, down a few streets from the famous Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street Library, I would pass by the glorious Grand Central Terminal’s main entrance at 42nd street, occasionally going in and marveling at its stunning, breathtaking design, at least 3 to 4 times a week.

It was just about this time that a few politicians and a state Supreme Court Judge came up with the brilliant idea to tear down this majestic engineering, architectural work of art. It is simply amazing what idiotic ideas, that almost become reality, can happen when a few politicians and a Judge a little too high on his own power can come up with. (a 1970’s version of the current Republican Party)

Thankfully a few Preservations, most notably Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, intervened and saved the day. Since then the terminal has undergone a major restoration returning the terminal to its original glory, expanding it, and in my humble opinion making it more remarkable than ever. A city within a city.

The book is filled with amazing pictures and just in case you don’t have time to read the book you might want to go to: www.grandcentralterminal.com/info/aud…

I highly recommend this book and like I said earlier, love it or hate it, one should visit NYC at least once in your lifetime. Grand Central Station would be a great place to start.

GAY TALESE’S, “BARTLEBY AND ME.”

Gay Talese is a dapper dressed gentleman. In fact, I have never seen him give an interview in which he was not dressed in a suit and tie. His father was a fairly famous tailor on the Jersey Shore and that might be the reason.

The dichotomy is that while working as a journalist for the NY Times, Vanity Fair, and other major magazines he has concentrated his energy on working class men and women as his subjects

In his breathtaking biography on the New York Times, “The Kingdom and the Power,” (one of my all time favorite biographies) he, once again, concentrates much of the book on the copy editors, printers, journalists reporting on the every day activities of New York City citizens, secretaries, and news stories that got very little attention but nevertheless were major scoops.

Writing about a restaurant, he worked in the kitchen of the restaurant arriving at six in the morning and leaving whenever things slowed down.

At ninety years old he has given us a wonderful and delightful collections of stories mostly about the average person in his latest work “Bartleby and Me.” He also expands on stories he had written years ago such as, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” which Vanity Fair has called the “greatest literary-non-fiction story of the twentieth century.”

“Bartleby and Me,” is relatively short at only 300 pages, considering that some of his non-fiction novels were close to a thousand pages, but at ninety years I can report that this masterful story teller still has it. I highly recommend this book.

“THE INVISIBLE HOUR,” BY ALICE HOFFMAN

I don’t know what I find more amazing about Ms. Hoffman: 1) How very prolific a writer she is or 2) her brilliance as a writer? She is the Graham Greene of today.

“The Invisible Hour,” her latest novel, is a tribute to the written word and the beauty of books and reading. Her tribute actually brought me to tears it is so powerful.

She uses a fictionalized version of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who in the book, has a relationship with the present day MIA, the main character, who goes back in time to meet her favorite author and the man who wrote “The Scarlet Letter.” The book that changed her life, and helped her escape the closed-off Community (sect) she was raised in and find true freedom.

This is such a wonderful and beautiful book. You think I wouldn’t be surprised after reading so many of her books but she never fails to amaze me.

STACY SCHIFF’S, “THE WITCHES.”

Ms. Stacy Schiff’s, “The Witches: Salem, 1692,” Had me revisiting a number of LSD trips back in my younger days…some bad ones and some good ones. It also had me revisiting my days working at a mental institution on Long Island as a volunteer where I came face to face with people suffering from schizophrenia, severe depression, bi-polar disorders and many different kinds of psychosis.

I was tempted to put down this book and never pick it up half-a-dozen times and yet I continued right through to the end. The narrative at times was impossible to follow. The characters, at times, seem to change from the bad guys to the good guys and in the end I wasn’t sure what they actually represented.

I had better luck hallucinating and at the same time trying to figure out the meaning behind many of Dylan’s songs and the play on words in many of “The Doors,” songs.

Yes, I did learn a thing or two about the insanity that took over Salem in 1692 but I am not sure it was worth my sanity.

“THE CAUSE,” BY JOSEPH J. ELLIS

The American Revolutionary period, between 1763-1802, is the period of history I have studied and read about the most. On the walls around my desk, I have framed pictures of President Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, and President Lincoln (yes, I know he was not alive during this period but like President Washington we might not have a country if not for these two men). There are many more individuals that I do not have framed pictures of during this period but who I also admire greatly, especially John Jay, Nathaniel Greene, John Laurens, John Adams, Lafayette, and Madison.

And of course, I have a number who are quite famous and have monuments to their greatness in Washington D.C. who I feel are undeserving, especially Thomas Jefferson.

“The Cause,” written by framed historian Joseph J. Ellis is the type of book I would tell people interested in this period, but who know very little about it, that this would be a great book to start off with, and for individuals familiar with this period that it is definitely worth reading because it does highlight situations and individuals that are very seldom mentioned but proved to be very important.

In 1763 the literacy rate in the thirteen colonies, excluding the slave population and Native Americans, was an astonishing 90 percent. The highest rate in the world at the time. This is of major importance because even though it took months for articles, in Boston about Bunker Hill to reach places like Georgia, when it did pass through the colonies the majority of the citizens were able to read about the heroic militias who were fighting the brutal British (and make no mistake the British were brutal in ever sense of the word).

Also Benjamin Franklin calculated that the American population from 1763 onward was going up by 25 percent every 5 years which is also an astonishing rate of growth. Add to this, the size of the 13 colonies combined and one might ask, “Why not give into the Colonists’ demands of representation and more independence and not go to war?”

Well, a number of prominent British members of the Parliament and framed historian Edward Gibbon, who was in the process of writing “The History of the Decline and Rise of the Roman Empire,” pleaded with parliament not to go to war with the American colonies for the reasons stated above.

But King George III and his puppets in the Parliament refused to listen. How dare those subjects in the colonies challenge the mighty British Empire?

These are just a few of the interesting facts that Mr. Ellis’ book, “The Cause,” brings to light and it’s interesting bits and pieces of non-fiction like this that made this book such a joy to read.

“TOM LAKE,” BY ANN PATCHETT

If ever there was a novel that had me loving it and disliking it throughout, it is this novel. Which is kind of funny because Ann Patchett is one of my favorite writers and I have loved all of her books and, whereas I might be the only person who thinks so, I think her novel, “The Magician’s Assistant,” is a near perfect novel.

“Tom Lake,” literally takes place during the pandemic era…or in other words in the present. Lara, the mother of three daughters all in their twenties, and her husband Joe work and live on their beautiful farm in Michigan. The farm has been handed down for generations on Joe’s side of the family and because of the pandemic has seen all their workers leave and their three children come back to the farm to live and work.

It is during this time when all the girls are out picking cherries that their mother, Lara, tells them about the time she was an up and coming actress in Hollywood and during one summer which she did summer theater in a place called “Tom Lake.” A place where she acted in the play, “Our Town,” and at the same time carried on a romance with the male lead who later became a future Hollywood star named Duke.

Duke in many ways reminds me of a number of actors I had the pleasure to know. Duke is handsome, talented, ambitious, and if given the choice between taking his girlfriend, Lara, to the hospital after she breaks her Achilles’ ankle or going to rehearsals he naturally chooses rehearsals, doing the play that night, and then hooking up with Lara’s understudy in the play.

It is through the telling of her story, which dominates the novel, that we learn the contrasts that exist between her daughters’ (now) generation and Lara’s generation of the 1980’s. It is also a confirmation of marriage and love. Despite her failed romance with Duke, she nevertheless finds true love with her husband Joe and their three children and doesn’t regret ditching her aspiring and rising Hollywood career and possibly becoming as famous as Duke.

Ms. Patchett’s brilliance shines intermittently throughout the novel, especially at the very end where her narrative structure and analysis is so beautiful and life affirming that I was left somewhat dazzled.

If only Duke didn’t remind me … ??