What I’m Reading: Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander

My Amazon review of Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander (Rated 5) – Three Unlikely Love Stories. Nathan Englander’s brilliant rumination on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict unfolds in three hopeless love stories: an off-the-record prisoner and his guard; a caretaker and her comatose General; and, more conventionally, a man and woman on either side of the political and geographical divide. Englander challenge readers to accept the moral ambiguity of his characters’ actions. This is a book of questions, not answers, most significantly: Is love enough to justify dreams of peace?

Learn History Through Fiction: If Women Wear the Pants …

As women took over men’s jobs in WWI, worries abounded about what women would “threaten” to do next. History evolves but essentially repeats itself in every generation. Read more about women’s history during this era in On the Shore (see NOVELS). Read about the book  http://www.vineleavespress.com/on-the-shore-by-ann-s-epstein.html and watch the book trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXKrHdL59Hs&feature=youtu.be.

“Shoot the Chute” Published in Saranac Review

I’m pleased to announce that Saranac Review has published my short story “Shoot the Chute” in the Fall 2017 issue (see SHORT STORIES). Here’s the log line: In “Shoot the Chute,” an obsessive woman, whose husband doubts her maternal fitness, is fixated on adopting the smallest “incubator baby” on display at Coney Island amusement park in 1937. The journal is not online (hard copy only) but visit their website http://saranacreview.com/ to read about the fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and artwork in this issue.

Learn History Through Fiction: A Sailor’s Life in World War One

In WWI, a sailor’s sleeping gear, consisting of a hammock and a canvas-covered mattress, was called a “fart sack.” The food wasn’t much better than the sleeping accommodations (see 09/28/17 blog post about “iron rations”). On base, they supplemented their rations at the “gedunk” stand, a bar or canteen where they bought soda, sandwiches, candy, and other snacks. There are many ideas about where the term “gedunk” originated. The one I like best is that it derived from a Chinese word meaning “place of idleness.” Read more WWI history in On the Shore (see NOVELS) and learn more historical trivia in BEHIND THE STORY.

Learn History Through Fiction: Selective Service Expands Draft Age In WWI

At the start of WWI, the Selective Service originally required males 21-30 to register; this was amended in August 2018 to allow men 18-45 to enlist. Read more about WWI history in On the Shore (see NOVELS), about the turmoil in an immigrant Jewish family when their son lies about his name and age to fight in the Navy. Although the story takes place a century ago, it evokes the hopes and struggles of today’s immigrants from all backgrounds.

What I’m Reading: Seasonal Roads by L. E. Kimball

My Amazon review of Seasonal Roads by L. E. Kimball (Rated 5): Linked stories of three people, four characters – L. E. Kimball’s web of stories introduces readers to four characters: Norna, her daughter Aissa, Aissa’s daughter Jane, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The tales, at once violent and tender, otherworldly and practical, are told slant, yet they pack a direct wallop. Likewise, these unusual women are as solid as the Northern Michigan earth, as insubstantial as its air, and as fluid as its water. Each thrives on solitude, yet they cling to their tenuous connections with one another and the men in their lives as tenaciously as the last oak leaf in December. So too will this haunting book cling to you.

Learn History Through Fiction: A Rose by Many Other Names

While writing the story “Undark” (see STORIES) in which a fictional sister of one of Radium Girls paints floral designs on dishes, I researched the symbolic names of flowers. Here are a few familiar flower names (and their intriguing meanings): White Stargazer Lily (innocence restored to the soul of the deceased); Daffodils (a single means misfortune; a bunch signifies renewal and a fresh start); Alstroemeria (wealth, prosperity, fortune); Anemone (fading hope or anticipation); Hydrangea (heartfelt emotions; positive is gratitude, negative is heartlessness); Peony (compassion & good health or indignation & shame). Flower names, like the best fiction, can mean both one thing and the opposite. Read more about the Radium Girls and flower symbolism in BEHIND THE STORY.

Learn History Through Fiction: Iron Rations for an Iron Stomach

It is said that “an army marches on its stomach,” but what if the food is awful? In WWI (the era of my novel On the Shore), soldiers ate Iron Rations. They pounded the hard tack into chips with rifle butts and soaked bully beef in soup or hot water. To find out how soldiers supplemented this tasteless fare with snacks from the “gedunk stand,” see On the Shore in NOVELS. Learn the more colorful names for military food in BEHIND THE STORY.

What I’m Reading: The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman

My Amazon review of The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman (Rated 4): Electrifying story of compassion and courage – Diane Ackerman tells an electrifying true story of compassion and courage. The book is filled with the joys of nature and the horrors of wartime occupation. It captures the personalities of the people and the animals who lived with and cheered them. The writing is sometimes stilted and too many details obscure rather than illuminate the setting. However, it is worth plowing through the excess verbiage for the gems of humanity.

Learn History Through Fiction: Red Ribbons and Red Peppers

My WWII-era novel-in-progress, tentatively titled One Person’s Loss, includes rituals that the protagonists, German Jewish immigrants, use to ward off the “evil eye” when their baby is born. I researched whether their Italian immigrant neighbors might have similar superstitions. Jews tie red ribbons on the carriage, and/or a red string called a roite bindele around the infant’s left wrist, to protect it from the envy of demons. Italians wear a cornicello, a charm resembling a red pepper, to ward off bad luck and tocca ferro (touch iron). Read more about these and other good luck rituals in BEHIND THE STORY.