Learn History Through Fiction: Before Today’s Trendy Food Carts

On New York City’s Lower East Side in the early 1900s, 2,500 pushcart peddlers haggled and sold every type of goods imaginable, including shirt collars and shoelaces, pots and pans, and vegetables and pretzels. Read more about the Lower East Side at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

 

 

Learn History Through Fiction: Women Light Up in WWI

Women smoking became less taboo as they took over men’s jobs in WWI. Cigarettes were manufactured and marketed expressly for ladies. One early brand was Milo Violets, which was advertised as “Delicately scented gold tip cigarettes for the discerning woman.” Another was Murad Turkish cigarettes. One ad featured a ringed hand holding a cigarette with the tagline line: “Which is the jewel?” Next thing you know, women would want to vote! Read more about women’s history during this era in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

What I’m Reading: The Mother I Imagined, the Mom I Knew: A Hybrid Memoir by Paul Alan Fahey

My Amazon review of The Mother I Imagined, the Mom I Knew: A Hybrid Memoir by Paul Alan Fahey (Rated 5): Turbulent and Touching – Paul Fahey’s hybrid memoir – an interweaving of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry – recaps his fierce, fractious, but ultimately fulfilling relationship with his mother. Fahey takes readers on a lifelong journey from their nomadic existence in his childhood to their memorable travels in Africa (when he was in the Peace Corps) to their truce when his mother was battling terminal cancer. Fahey is at once honest and compassionate.

Learn History Through Fiction: An Alarming 25:1 Ratio of Losses

Because the U.S. entered WWI late (04/06/1917), Navy ships never engaged directly with the German fleet. The first U.S. victory (of sorts), off Mine Head in Ireland, occurred when a German U-boat (U-61) fired a torpedo at the USS Cassin and the crew kept the Cassin afloat, i.e., a “victory” in that, while we didn’t win, at least we didn’t lose the ship. Over the course of the war, German U-boats destroyed 5,000 Allied vessels but only 199 Germans submarines were lost, an alarming 25:1 ratio of losses. Read more about WWI history and its effect on immigrant families back home in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

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.