Lee Klancher: The Farmall Century 1923-2023

The Farmall Century 1923-2023: The Evolution of Red Tractors and Crawlers in the Golden Age of International Harvester – Lee Klancher – Octane Press – Hardcover – 9781642341393 – 384 pages (11.8 x 10.5) – $59.95 – October 26, 2023

This fantastic coffee table book is a massive, well-researched, detailed, extensively illustrated, and very readable history not only of the International Harvester Farmall tractor, but of the people and company that built, marketed and sold it all over the world. Even if you have no interest whatsoever in tractors as motorized, wheeled devices, this story is compelling. Farming was once what the majority of Americans did for a living, and while the numbers of farmers has declined steadily during the last hundred years, the industries that emerged in the industrial age to convert American agriculture from horse to engine driven agriculture were a crucial part of the story of modern America and the world we fed (and still, to some measure still feed).

As a history of an important part of our agro-industrial economy, The Farmall Century is indispensable. If you are interested in American history, this book will captivate your imagination and make you think about the incredible ambition, ingenuity, inventiveness, and commitment of so many individuals who built these industrial companies, and you will also find reasons to think about the downsides of our industrialized agriculture too.

Lee Klancher probably knows more about tractors and farmers than anyone you will ever come across. He not only writes and takes photographs for his books, he is also the founder and operator of the leading tractor related book publisher, Octane Press, in Austin, Texas. I interviewed him about Octane for the Publishing Talks series back in 2016 because I think the kind of focused niche publishing he does is so interesting.

In any case, I love anything with wheels, and even though I did not grow up on a farm and have never driven a tractor, I had a great time reading Lee’s beautifully written and produced Farmall book. Talking to Lee about it was an additional pleasure. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did. Here’s a link to the book, and here’s a link to Octane Press, which is a fun site to visit also. There are plenty of tractor books there, but much more too, a great many treats, especially if you like wheeled vehicles.

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Baron Wormser: The Road Washes Out in Spring

The Road Washes Out in Spring: A Poet’s Memoir of Living Off the Grid – Baron Wormser – Brandeis University Press – 9781684581603 – 214 pages – paperback – $24.95 – March 7, 2023 – ebook versions available at lower prices

Baron Wormser is a poet and prose writer whose work I have been familiar with for many years. Back in the 1970s, he and his wife Janet, moved to rural Maine as part of the “back to the land” wave that had been inspired by hippies and the Stewart Brand’s influential Whole Earth Catalog and especially the writings of the now almost mythic Helen and Scott Nearing, vegetarians who pioneered simple living in the 1930s and 40s.

His memoir of that time was originally published almost twenty years ago and now there is a new edition of this meditative, almost poetic narrative of simple living.

Baron and his family lived in a house they built in Maine with no electricity or running water. Much like the Nearings, they raised (and canned) much of their own food, carried water from their well, and read through the long winter nights by the light of kerosene lamps.

As Wormser states early in this book, living off the grid was not meant to be a statement of anything. In fact, as complete novices to the life they set out to live, it turned out that they had built their house in a place that there was no electricity and initially they could not afford to pay to have power lines run to their house. As time went on, they embraced the simplicity of their rural lives and learned from their experienced neighbors, for whom life was not a choice and “lifestyle” would have been a meaningless term.

Wormser refuses any simple understanding or explanation for the lives he and his wife chose for the twenty five year period during which they raised their children and became integral to the local community. He writes about nature and the simple life without sentimentalizing anything, appreciates the good and faces the difficulties head on without failing to note the complexity of everything we prefer to think of as simple. He is a careful thinker and writer, and his poetic self is a presence at all times.  Here is a lovely excerpt from the book:

If there is such a thing as a mutable eternity, it is snow falling in the woods. I am thinking of a windless, steady plummeting. Nothing is moving except for snowflakes. You can hear the snow faintly ticking on the pine needle branches. You can hear it descending—a soft sift of air. You are held in the hand of something enormous yet gentle, something extraordinary yet calming, something evanescent yet quite palpable (from a Latin word meaning “to touch gently”). Every surface receives the snow in its way. A large, fallen, curled maple leaf collects the snow in its center. A boulder”s stored heat resists the snow at first. Then its surface turns wet as if it were raining. Then with un-boulder-like delicacy a thin frizz accumulates. On top of the garden gate a fragile white skein begins to perch. Little, almost derby-like hats grow on the garden fence posts. The mown grass around the house fills in gradually. The stiff, frozen blades seem like little heights. Then the snow, as it mounts, receives itself. Another landscape is created and for months we live in that landscape.

When I was in my twenties, I shared the impulse to “head for the country,” where I tried and failed to make a go of living on the land. I greatly admire and appreciate what the commitment that Baron and his family made to live in Maine for a quarter century. And it was a deep pleasure to read this memoir of that time.

In 2000 Baron was appointed Poet Laureate of Maine by Governor Angus King. He currently resides in Montpelier, Vermont, with his wife. In 2009 he joined the Fairfield University MFA program. He works in schools with both students and teachers. Wormser has received the Frederick Bock Prize from Poetry and the Kathryn A. Morton Prize along with fellowships from Bread Loaf, the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 2000 he was writer in residence at the University of South Dakota. Wormser founded the Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching and also the Frost Place Seminar. His most recent book of poetry is The History Hotel, published by CavanKerry Press.

In other rooms and beyond those rooms
So much was occurring that went on happily
And unhappily, indifferent to protocols,
Brimming with anemones, half-heard melodies,
Averted glances. 

(from “Elegy for the Poet Adam Zagajewski”)

Author website

Buy The Road Washes Out in Spring

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S.C. Gwynne: His Majesty’s Airship interview by David Wilk

His Majesty’s Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World’s Largest Flying Machine — Sam Gwynne — Scribner — 9781982168278 — 320 pages — hardcover — $32.00 – May 2, 2023 — ebook versions available at lower cost

Sam Gwynne is the author of the outstanding Empire of the Summer Moon, a book I really loved. In this new work, he tells the story of a very different sort, documenting the British airship R101, but covering essentially the entire rise and fall of “lighter than air” powered flight. Like so many other airships, R101 crashed horribly in 1930 and killed almost its entire crew, including the leadership of the British airship industry, which at the time still hoped for an empire conquering means of travel. It was a massive case of a foolish, hubristic belief in something that could never succeed. It’s tempting to view this disaster as symptomatic of an empire in decline.

At least for a time, airships were a symbol of the future. R101 was, in fact, the largest aircraft ever to have flown and the product of what appeared to be advanced engineering. Somehow its supporters simply failed to recognize that these massive, hydrogen fueled, uncontrollable flying structures were bound to fail.

There is a captivating cast of characters at hand, including German inventors, well-to-do aristocrats to brilliantly flawed engineers, alcoholic flyers and even a Romanian princess and her doomed romance with the leader of the British airship program.

Gwynne is a masterful storyteller and is able to bring a previously obscure piece of twentieth century history to life for modern readers. It was a pleasure to speak with him about this book, his working methods as a writer of history, and a range of other topics as well. I’m looking forward to reading Sam’s next book, on any subject he cares to write about. He is that good a writer.

S.C. “Sam” Gwynne is the author of acclaimed books on American history: Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson, Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War, and The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football. He grew up in Connecticut, went to Princeton and Johns Hopkins, and now lives in Austin, Texas.

Sam has written for Texas Monthly and for Outside magazine. He was a Correspondent, Bureau Chief, National Correspondent and Senior Editor for Time Magazine and has also written for the New York Times, Harper’s, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, California Magazine, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, and other publications.

Author website. 

Buy the book from Bookshop.org

“Aviation history is nothing less than miraculous; it took a mere sixty-three years, after all, to get from the Wright brothers to Neil Armstrong. Barely a century ago, however, our skies were filled with a bounty of gliders, biplanes, and flying boats; balloons, blimps, and zeppelins. With His Majesty’s Airship, the inimitable Mr. Gwynne explores in vivid detail how this dream bloomed, and how it, in time, fell tragically to earth. He has written both a remarkable history and an eye-opening revelation of technology’s recurrent phantasms.” — Craig Nelson, award-winning author of Pearl Harbor and Rocket Men

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Cornelia Maude Spelman: Missing: A Memoir

Missing: A Memoir – Cornelia Maude Spelman – Jackleg Press – 9781737513445 – Paperback – 176 pages – $17.00 – July 15, 2022 – ebook versions available at lower prices

Cornelia Maude Spelman is best known as a children’s book author. This memoir of her family was spurred by her meeting with and friendship with the late New Yorker editor William Maxwell (himself an extraordinary writer as well), who knew her parents in the 1920s when they were at the University of Illinois together.

Cornelia plainly admired and enjoyed the company of Maxwell, but also was fascinated that he knew her parents before they had children, before their lives went in different directions than Maxwell’s. At one of her meetings with him, she suggests that her parents’ lives were not successful in the terms they had hoped for. Maxwell gently tells her that “in a good novel one doesn’t look for a success story, but for a story that moves one with its human drama and richness of experience.”

It was Maxwell who prompted Cornelia to explore and tell the story of her parents. This memoir tells that story. Spelman spent years exploring the history of her family. It’s a wonderful exploration, full of side trips and thoughtful reflections, and much that anyone interested in the mysteries of their family members will appreciate. Superman was luckier than most of us, in that she was able to meet with people who knew her parents when they were young. Most of us get interested in these stories far too late in our own lives to be able to talk to people who actually knew our older family members, or who, if still around, can remember anything meaningful to tell us.

Spelman’s research is extensive too. She goes to Iowa and Illinois to track down places and information details of her family history and to find people who know something about her parents and their parents. She recounts letters and interviews, even finding medical records and telegrams to help fill out stories that would otherwise be invisible or lost. Importantly Spelman is able to reconstructs her mother’s life and death, as well as that of her long lost brother. Cornelia’s writing is excellent and her storytelling compelling, so that even though we are not connected to the people about whom she writes, we can feel how she feels about them and about herself as she searches out and tells these “missing” family stories.

Cornelia is always honest with us about her disappointments, as well as what she learns that brings her joy and closure as well. This book is warm, profound, and honest. At the end, we know there is still much that will always be missing, but so much more that has been found.

Cornelia Maude Spelman, MSW, was a family therapist before she became a writer and artist. She’s written eleven books for children that help them manage emotions and difficult life situations. Her The Way I Feel series of books for young children has sold several million copies and been translated into Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Greek, Japanese, German, Arabic, Turkish, Danish, and Russian. Cornelia has earned awards from the Illinois Arts Council and was awarded the Bernard De Voto Fellowship in Nonfiction at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. This is her first book for adult readers.

It was truly a pleasure to speak with her about this book and her journey to write it.

Author website
Buy the book

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Beatrice Hitchman: All of You Every Single One

All of You Every Single One: A Novel – Beatrice Hitchman – Overlook Press – 978-1-4197-5693-1 – Hardcover – 320 pages – $26 – January 4, 2022 – ebook editions available at lower prices

This novel is an absolutely riveting book I truly enjoyed. And happily, it introduced me to the work of Beatrice Hitchman, who is a wonderful writer. Her story begins in 1910 with Julia Lindqvist, who is unhappily married to a well known Swedish playwright. She leaves him after falling passionately in love with a captivating Austrian woman, a tailor named Eve. Together, they escape to the much less restrictive environment of Vienna, where the story unfolds over the course of 35 years, against the backdrop of the progressive period between the wars, the couple’s close-knit group of unusual friends, Julia’s analysis by Freud, and then later, the difficult period leading up to and including World War II.

Julia and Eve create a lifelong partnership and live as a couple. With the help of their friend, Frau Berndt, they form a network of supportive friends and neighbors. The narrative shifts between Julia, Eve, and the other key people in their network.

I felt that the beginning of the book does not prepare us for all that will follow, and there were times when I could not keep track of all the characters and the storyline. And I’d say that the ending is perhaps the weakest part of the novel. But the author’s language carried me forward, and her characters have stayed with me still. This book will reward you with its depth throughout.

This is Beatrice Hitchman’s second novel. Her first, Petite Mort, was published in 2013 by Serpent’s Tail. She was born in London and has lived in Hong Kong, Edinburgh and Paris. Beatrice is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Brighton. Her research focuses on contemporary queer fiction, the ethics of historical fiction, writing the remote past, and the endings/closure events of novels (which certainly comes through in this novel!)

You can visit her website here.  Buy her book here.

I loved talking to Beatrice about her novel and hope you will enjoy hearing our conversation.

Author photo by Sara Lee       

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Robert Child: Immortal Valor: The Black Medal of Honor Recipients of World War II

Immortal Valor: The Black Medal of Honor Recipients of World War II – Robert Child – Osprey – 9781472852854 – 288 pages – hardcover – $30 – January 11, 2022 – ebook edition available at lower prices

It is remarkable to realize how few medals of honor were awarded for service during World War II – there were 432 Congressional medals given out of the over sixteen million men and women who served during that four year period during which America fought large scale brutal wars in both the Pacific and European theaters. It is therefore shocking to find out that not a single African American was among the 432 honorees, despite the fact that over one million African Americans served in the then mostly segregated military environment.

Racism remains an American fact of life. But the “progress” made in the modern era probably has muddied our awareness of what our country was like such a short time ago. Robert Child has done an admirable service with this book, documenting the incredible heroism of the seven Black American heroes of World War II who were finally recognized for their efforts – but only after an incredibly long period of time and much work in their behalf.

Child documents the recent historical investigations that have discovered and the stories of extraordinary acts of heroism and valor by the Black soldiers in World War II who were eventually awarded the highest honor our country offers for wartime service. The group of servicemen includes Vernon Baker, Sergeant Reuben Rivers, and Lieutenant Charles Thomas, who led his platoon that captured a strategically important village in Germany in 1944 despite suffering grievous wounds and losing half the men in his unit. The other four who are portrayed sympathetically and thoroughly in this book are Willy James, Jr., John Fox, Edward A. Carter, Jr., and George Watson, heroes all, not only for their valor in the fights they undertook, but for what they did to overcome the deep-seated endemic racism in the military during the time they served their country.

It was not until 1993 that a US Army commission determined that these seven men had been denied our country’s highest award – only because of racial discrimination. And then it was in 1997, more than 50 years after the war that President Clinton finally awarded the Medal of Honor to them, with only one still being living at the time.

Their stories comprise most of this book, as well as some background about the military before, during and after World War II. Sadly, it is almost certain that there are other Black service men and women who might have deserved recognition for their sacrifices and heroism in that war. It was not even until the Obama administration that two World War I heroes were recognized, Sergeant William Shemin, for whom the anti-semitism of the time meant his amazing feats of heroism were almost lost to history, and Sergeant William Henry Johnson, another Black soldier who had been recognized by France with a Croix de Guerre in 1919, but neglected by the United States for far too long.

It was an honor for me to speak with author Robert Child about this terrific and highly emotional book.

Child is a military history writer, director, and author with. Robert has received writing and directing awards including an Emmy® nomination. He lives in Atlanta.

“This is the only comprehensive narrative written about the African American Medal of Honor recipients of WWII to date. Extremely well written, with very little personal background on some of these men to work with, Child manages to bring each of these heroes’ stories to life on a personal level. Child carefully reconstructs each recipient’s life prior to his act of valor, demonstrating the character traits that made each an example of integrity, sacrifice and courage. This is a must-read book about seven black soldiers and their bravery at the highest level and the racial injustice that took over four decades to acknowledge. Well done!” ―Arthur Collins, President, 5th Platoon, the black World War II education and reenactment group

Author website here.

Purchase the book here.

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William J. Peters: At Heaven’s Door-What Shared Journeys to the AfterLife Teach about Dying Well and Living Better

At Heaven’s Door – What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach about Dying Well and Living Better – William J. Peters – with Michael Kinsella – Simon and Schuster – 978-1-9821-5042-6 – Hardcover – 248 pages – $26.00 – January 18, 2022 – ebook editions available at lower prices

William Peters is a therapist who had worked for many years with people at the end of their lives. In 2000, when he was volunteering at the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco , he experienced something very similar to what mystics describe and what some people who have been close to death have reported, the sense of floating in midair, completely out of the body. In this case, he was with his patient in this “other dimension” and the dying person looked at him and smiled. Peters himself returned to his body, but the patient remained unconscious and soon died.

This powerful experience set Peters off on what has become the journey of his life’s work. He began searching for other people who had had similar experiences. He spent more than twenty years finding people, talking to them, and meticulously categorizing their stories to identify the patterns and characteristics of what he calls the “shared crossing” experience. What is really interesting is how similar all these experiences are, regardless of age, gender, background, cultural origin, etc. Many of these stories are included in this book, as people have had visual and sensory effects that are to them evidence of another dimension, that brought with them powerful emotional after-effects that in most cases stayed with them and completely changed their understanding of reality.

Apparently this kind of experience is known to many in the hospice community and even some otherwise rationalist medical practitioners. The book is filled with stories of all kinds, some are spouses and parents of loved ones lost either suddenly or after long illnesses, and some stories are told by individuals who were simply present at someone’s final passage and were chosen to share the experience, or in some cases to help usher the dying person into the light of this “afterlife” dimension.

After years of research and documentation, Peters has a lot to say about what all of these experiences might mean for us – the living. Regardless of our outlooks and beliefs, we all want to know what will happen to us when we die, and those who have shared in the death experience as reported here might allay our all too reasonable fear and help explain what comes next. Our culture does not embrace the experience of death as many other cultures have done – our medicine tries desperately to stave off death, and we are all so attached to living, with no training or understanding of death, we push it away completely.

It does not matter whether you embrace or reject the stories told here, or the literal descriptions of the “afterlife” and the other dimensions the dying experience. Maybe what we experience at death is just a biological projection, after all. Whatever you may choose to believe, knowing more about death, understanding the end-of-life passage, and better integrating it into our lives is important for our psyches.

William Peters is the founder of the Shared Crossing Project and director of its Research Initiative. He has spent many years studying end-of-life experiences. Peters worked as a hospice volunteer with the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco and as a teacher and social worker in Central and South America. A practicing grief and bereavement therapist, he holds degrees from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and UC Berkeley.

I had a terrific conversation with William Peters. The book, and my conversation with the author have stayed with me and I continue to explore where it has taken me. It appears to be a simple book, but comes with many layers of understanding and thoughtfulness for the attentive reader.

Visit the Shared Crossing website here.

Buy the book here.

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Enrique Salmón: Iwígara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science

Iwígara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science, The Kinship of Plants and People — Enrique Salmón –Timber Press — 978-1-60469-880-0 — Hardcover – $34.95 – ebook and audio book versions available at lower prices

This is a truly incredible and hugely inspiring book for me. Enrique Salmón, a member of the Raramuri tribe from Mexico, has spent a lifetime learning and studying the medicinal and cultural properties of North American plants. He now teaches at California State University-East Bay in Hayward, California. His work may place him in academia, but he is fully engaged in the natural world.

Salmon begins his work with the deeply held knowledge that all life-forms are interconnected and share the same breath, which is called Iwígara in the Raramuri tribe.

In this book, Salmón presents us with eighty of the most important plants used by North American indigenous peoples. Of course, plants have always been used as food and medicine by indigenous peoples. What is important knowledge for those who are interested in engaging with a plant centric life are the passed down information about identification and harvest, the nature and applications of plants for food and medicine, and to understand how they have been central to traditional stories and myths for the disparate cultures across this continent.

Salmón honors the traditions and practices of so many different tribes here, and helps us understand the variation across different biomes and cultures of the people who live in them. Some of us learn deeply in a specific place across long periods of time, while others may trade breadth for depth. Native peoples are among the former, but most modern people fall into the latter category. A book like this one helps bridge the two different approaches to knowledge. Salmón recognizes that tension, and manages it well here. He understands that one cannot live in deep connection to the natural world without choosing a place in which to live. But readers need to know where to begin, and this book can be an introduction for anyone who wants to begin their own journey of learning and knowledge about plants, healing and cultural traditions.

I should mention also that the book is beautifully designed and includes many excellent photographs and illustrations, most in color. It is excellent work, combining narrative with references suited to beginners and experienced naturalists alike.

Enrique is also the author of Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience (2012).

I was honored to have the opportunity to speak with Enrique Salmón for Writerscast about his work, and hope you will enjoy listening to a truly knowledgeable plant practitioner.

Purchase Iwígara from Bookshop.org

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Peter Quinn: Banished Children of Eve: A Novel of Civil War New York

Banished Children of Eve: A Novel of Civil War New York – Peter Quinn – Empire State Editions (Fordham University Press) – 978-08232-9408-4 – 612 pages – paperback – $17.95 (eBook version is not available for this title)

Historical novels based in New York City have always appealed to me. I am not sure why. Maybe it has something to do with the time I spent with my grandparents, who lived in New York City, took me frequently to the Museum of the City of New York, and showed me many of the historical sites of the city. Maybe it is simply because so much of American history is the history of that great city.

I picked this book to read while browsing a bookstore for the first time since the pandemic began. Book discovery is a wonderful thing, and something many of us have missed. There are occasions when a book seems to jump off the shelf and into your hands, drawn there by some mysterious bookstore magic. Sometimes those discoveries are serendipitous and that was definitely the case with this novel. It was not the only book I bought that day, but it jumped my queue and I devoured the book in a way that reminded me of my youthful nights under the covers reading by flashlight.

Banished Children of Eve is one of those longish historical novels that is a joy to immerse oneself in. It is a great story about a dramatic time and place, with terrific well-drawn characters and a great story unfolding in multiple voices. And even the minor characters are brought to life by Quinn’s sympathetic descriptions.

The story takes place in 1863 when the Civil War is its third bloody year and the Union, having exhausted its volunteer army, has been forced to impose the first military draft. In New York City, where this book is set, that is a fateful decision, one that will set off the worst urban riot in American history. The cast of characters created by author Quinn represents every element of New York’s cultural community including an Irish-American hustler, a dishonest Yankee stockbroker, a young immigrant serving girl, a beautiful mixed-race actress and her white lover (a struggling minstrel). Surrounding these main characters are a number of historical, real-life characters we recognize, including the Union General George McClellan, Archbishop “Dagger John” Hughes and even the songwriter Stephen Foster.

All come together in the emerging disaster of the Draft Riots, bringing to life a period in American history that is certainly less well-known to most Americans than the more often told stories of battles and national politics of our war-torn country.

William Kennedy’s description of Peter Quinn pretty much sums up how I feel about this book: “Peter Quinn takes history by the throat and makes it confess.” That is perhaps one of the greatest book blurbs ever, by the way.

Quinn is a natural storyteller, and if you are not familiar with this incredible period in American history, I recommend you get a copy of this book immediately and dive in. You will be amazed and thrilled to read this book.

Talking to Peter was great fun for me. We certainly could have gone on for hours. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

Quinn was the chief speechwriter for Time, Inc. and retired as corporate editorial director for Time Warner at the end of 2007. He received a B.A. from Manhattan College, an M.A. in history from Fordham University and completed all the requirements for a doctorate except the dissertation. He was awarded a Ph.D., honoris causa, by Manhattan College in 2002.

In 1979, Quinn was appointed to the staff of Governor Hugh Carey as chief speechwriter. He continued in that role under Governor Mario Cuomo.

Originally published in 1994, Banished Children of Eve won a 1995 American Book Award. Hour of the Cat, set in Berlin and New York on the eve of WWII, was published in 2005, a nonfiction collection, Looking for Jimmy: In Search of Irish America was published in February 2007. His third novel, The Man Who Never Returned is based on the still-unsolved 1930 disappearance of NYS Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater, published in 2010.

Quinn co-wrote the script for the 1987 television documentary McSorley’s New York, for which he won an Emmy. He appeared in several PBS documentaries, including The Irish in America, New York: A Documentary Film, and The Life and Times of Stephen Foster, as well as the dramatic film, The Passion of Sister Rose. Quinn was an advisor on Martin Scorcese’s film Gangs of New York, the story of which precedes and in some ways underpins Banished Children of Eve.

Quinn was the editor of The Recorder: The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society from 1986 to 1993 and has published articles and reviews in the New York Times, Commonweal, America, American Heritage, the Catholic Historical Review, the Philadelphia Enquirer, the L.A. Times, Eiré-Ireland, and other newspapers and journals.

Quinn is also president and co-founder of Irish American Writers & Artists.

Author’s website is here.

You can buy Banished Children of Eve at Bookshop.org

 

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Susanne Paola Antonetta: The Terrible Unlikelihood of Our Being Here

The Terrible Unlikelihood of Our Being Here – Susanne Paola Antonetta – 978-0-8142-5780-7 – 248 pages – paperback – February, 2021 – Mad Creek Books – $22.95 – ebook editions available at lower prices

Sometimes one literally chances across a terrific book; it appears unbidden and takes over one’s complete attention. A surprise appearance in the daily maelstrom of life. This remarkable memoir by Susanne Paola Antonetta did just that for me, striking me like a lightning bolt out of the blue, and completely altering the trajectory of my thinking.

I’ve read alot of books and loved many of them. This book stopped me in my tracks. Reading it over the course of a few evenings, this author made me think and feel and understand another person’s experience, her deeply felt and beautifully described mind and being. That is quite an accomplishment and makes this a very special book indeed.

Antonetta brings us into her youth, the place of “Summerland” and her family’s life on the marshy border of the ocean in southern New Jersey. Like the descriptions of physics and astrophysics she intersperses between her memory pieces, her description of this place, the people in her family, and her own life are simultaneously dreamlike and definitive.

Her grandmother and mother are key figures throughout. And then she introduces her own experiences with bipolar disorder, drugs, and the trauma of electroshock treatment woven together with those brilliantly written descriptions of ideas in neuroscience and physics, and then there are her conversations with psychics and meditations on understanding their messages from inter-dimensional spaces. What a journey!

This is a memoir with great power and beauty, taking us into the past, the present and realms beyond, where ideas and perhaps the ground of being may or may not be found.

I won’t tell you much more about the book. I think you need to discover it for yourself. I loved it, and I really enjoyed speaking to Susanne as well. we had a terrific talk about this book and her writing.

This is a book I intend to re-read and work to understand more fully. Once is not enough.

“Antonetta tackles nothing less than consciousness and existence, employing an amalgam of science writing and mysticism. It’s hard to imagine another writer who could not only make such a project work but also make it seem natural and necessary.” —Robin Hemley, author of Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood.

Susanne Paola Antonetta is has written a number of books, including Make Me a Mother, Curious Atoms: A History with Physics, Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir, A Mind Apart: Travels in a Neurodiverse World, a novella, and four books of poetry. Her work has been published in a variety of newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Orion (one of my favorite magazines), the New Republic, and others. She lives in Bellingham, Washington.

Visit Susanne’s website for more information about her and her work.

You can buy the book from Bookshop.org.

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