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How Joel Diamond came to play at Carnegie Hall is a Yonkers story that began at the Hammond Organ Store on Nepperhan Avenue. Diamond was born blind in one eye, but when he walked into the organ store, he could play the keyboard. He was a prodigy.
University Professor Francois is approaching the thick of middle age while the Islamic world encroaches on the French Liberal Body Politic. Women are wearing burqas, alcohol is prohibited (except for the Islamic elite), and all men are encouraged to have multiple wives, the younger the better. Francois will soon lose his job at the New Sorbonne University, unless he submits to the new reigning Islamic order. He must profess his loyalty to Allah.
DEATH AND THE BUTTERFLY cracks open the door and allows us to peer into lives that are far apart in time and culture, yet every character has been touched by the long-term effect of the tragedy of World War II. Three storylines, developed over multiple timelines, are interwoven to create a narrative that is equal parts prose and poetry.
The story surrounding Florenz Baron might prove to be more interesting than her novel The Crowded Shroud. Born as Florenz Hasratoff in 1919, she spent most of her life living as a bohemian artist in conservative, blue-collar Yonkers.
Whenever I traveled to New York, I visited Sue at the Museum, making up for the time lost between us. We both marveled that we had escaped a blue collar fate. Other Yonkers girls took service jobs as health care workers or waitressing, a few taught in public schools. There wasn’t anything intrinsically wrong with these jobs, except they were so Yonkas.
My mother told me I had a way with words. She was proud of my poetry and stories, and said I was a natural born writer. I was flattered but I didn’t entirely believe her. She was a high school dropout and suffered from schizophrenia. I’m not sure if schizophrenia caused her to drop out of high school at sixteen. She often heard voices telling her to do things.
Today Jani Kelly, a gifted poet and wheelchair bound resident of the Josephinum, has become a local legend. Her words are part prayer, part poetry, with a sprinkling of passion and a good dose of mysticism. On those cold, dark days when all is lost, and nothing will sustain you, Jani’s voice rings with the truth. This poet laureate speaks to your soul.
Lauren Groff’s collection of stories share only one common thread: the loud, squawking desperation of working-class lives that inevitably come to an end in a one-two knockout punch. I’m glad to see a writer of considerable merit depicting working-class characters that no one really wants to know about. People are dying, rotting away, flicking cigarette ashes on the food they are about to eat, before blowing out their brains with a shotgun.
Overall, this book is a rote rendering of very important aspects of living a prayerful life. There is far too much filler content, which can often be due to the terms of the author’s book contract. A longer book nets a larger advance, more dollars, and a bigger “book deal.” I’m grateful for the book, though, because it made me think about how to rescue my prayer life from mediocrity.
