annsepstein@att.net

What I’m Reading: Just Kids by Patti Smith

My Amazon review of Just Kids (Rated 5): Exhilarating and Heartbreaking – Patti Smith’s dual portrait of the twining and twinning between herself and Robert Maplethorpe is at once exhilarating and heartbreaking. Exhilarating because of its energetic insights into how creative ideas take material form; heartbreaking because one laments the talented artists who remain unsung and, in this story, those whose songs the AIDS epidemic silenced too soon. Smith has written a treatise on art and love, how soul mates spur each other’s creativity and caring. She paints a detailed portrait of an era, late 1960s and 1970s NYC, years of grunge and glitter, and the germination of hybrid art forms. Readers will emerge with an understanding of the importance of belief in oneself and in those we love to develop and share their talent, and to achieve the recognition we and they are worthy of. So shed a tear for Robert’s death, then pick up a brush, pen, or microphone like Patti.

Learn History Through Fiction: Escape to Walhalla Hall

In the early 1900s, New York City’s Walhalla Hall, in the Lower East Side’s 10th ward, was the community’s main civic center and the site of weddings, dances, and union meetings. Residents of this teeming, destitute neighborhood, were glad to escape from daily poverty into the hall’s ornate interior for a few hours of animated talk, diverting entertainment, and lively company. Read more about the Lower East Side at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

Take advantage of the paperback sale of On the Shore at Amazon this holiday season: Discounted price $3.96 (usually $14.99); also available on Kindle for $2.99. Support Vine Leaves Press, a small independent publisher. Purchase the book at: https://www.amazon.com/Shore-Ann-S-Epstein/dp/1925417328/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=jessbell-20&linkId=8928bf4e3b131ae3b26d33f37ceec101

Learn history through fiction: Broken Heart or Welcoming Kiss at Ellis Island?

Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island were asked 29 questions including the following: Are you a polygamist? Are you an anarchist? Were you ever in an almshouse? After their arduous journey, 2% of the arrivals were not admitted, for medical, moral, political, economic, or other reasons and were deported back to their country of origin, earning it the nickname “Heartbreak Island.” For those immigrants fortunate to be admitted, a wooden column outside the Registry where they met their relatives was called the Kissing Post. Read more about immigrants to America at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

Learn History Through Fiction: There’ll Always Be an England

British WWI naval expressions described everything from eating to dying. Some of my favorites: Bully (canned, boiled, and pickled beef); Maconochie (a ration of beef, potatoes, beans, onions, and carrots in gravy); Pozzy (ration-issue jam); Chat (body louse); Napo (used up, worn out); Go phut (stop working); Last Post (Taps); and Go west (die). Read more about WWI history and its effect on immigrant families in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

What I’m Reading: Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

My Amazon review of Manhattan Beach (Rated 5): A Timeless Dive Into the Past – Jennifer Egan takes us deep into the world of the divers who serviced Navy ships in WW 2, and just as deep into the machinations of both lowlifes and high rollers. The novel glories in the details of underwater work, and the equally complex rules that govern families. Pursuing her unlikely dream to become a female diver, Anna Kerrigan is a compelling character of determination rather than self-conscious feminism or independence. Likewise, Jennifer Egan is a writer who has conscientiously revived a little-known part of history in a meticulous and flowing narrative.

Learn History Through Fiction: Melting Pot or Simmering Stew?

In the early 1900s, the Lower East Side’s 10th ward was a geographic, ethnic, and religious melting pot—some would say a simmering and “aromatic” stew. Russian and Eastern European Jews lived together with German, Polish, Irish, and Italian Catholics. There was also a thriving Chinatown. Read more about the Lower East Side and the people who lived and worked there at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS) and BEHIND THE STORY.

Learn History Through Fiction: The First Newberry Medal for Children’s Literature

The first Newberry Medal for children’s literature was awarded to Hendrik Van Loon for The Story of Mankind on June 22, 1922. Read more about the literature, films, and music of this era in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

Learn History Through Fiction: Products Created 100 Years Ago

Many products still known today were invented in the early 1900s-1920s. For example: Nestle Permanent Hair Wave (1905) Pyrex cookware (1915); Hydrox (1908) and Oreo (1912) cookies; Peter Pan Smooth Peanut Butter (1928); and Brillo (1913) and S.O.S. (1917) which stands for Save Our Saucepans and was named by the inventor’s wife. Also, the first issue of Reader’s Digest was published on February 05, 1922. Read about other products from this era in BEHIND THE STORY and learn more about popular culture before and after WWI in On the Shore (NOVELS).

Learn History Through Fiction: ID Tags a Cog in the Machinery of War

The first military ID tags were in issued 1906. Soldier got two tags, one to wear on their body, the other for the troop or ship record-keeper. Serial numbers were added to the tags in 1918, during WWI, due to the high casualty rates and the gruesome mutilation of bodies by the increasingly sophisticated machinery of warfare. Read more about WWI history and its effect on immigrant families in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

The Madison Review to Publish Golo’s Transport

I’m delighted to share the news that The Madison Review will publish my short story “Golo’s Transport” in the Spring 2018 issue (see SHORT STORIES). Here’s the story’s log line: In “Golo’s Transport,” an angry old man confronts the trauma of his parents sending him away on the Kindertransport from Germany to England on the eve of WW II. Soon after I finished the story, humanitarians suggested a “kindertransport” for children of Syrian refugees, adding to the manuscript’s timeliness. Here’s the website of The Madison Review if you’d like to see what else they publish: https://www.themadisonrevw.com/.