All Our Yesterdays / Natalia Ginzburg

In the novel All Our Yesterdays, published in 1952, Natalia Ginzburg presents the lives of two families in northern Italy through the years 1939 to 1944.  In the first section, the personal turbulence in the families dominates the narrative, but lurking in the background is the political ferment of a fascist Italy and Nazi Germany’s expansion across Europe.

The book is a dense read, with a parade of a wide variety of characters.  Even though the shadow of world events hangs over each of their lives, until later in the war, it is their personal concerns that propel the plot forward.  These include a suicide, an unwanted pregnancy, and a marriage of convenience.  It is a story where it is impossible to know which characters will survive the events described.  Capturing the turmoil of the times, Ginzburg does not necessarily spare any of the individuals whom the reader may have come to feel sympathy for.

There are many novels written about this time period, but the author’s concentration on her characters’ personal lives is what drives home the horror of living under Italy’s fascist government and a world war’s impact on those just trying to get by on the sidelines.  Through humdrum details of daily life, Ginzburg succeeds in highlighting the devastation inflicted by global events.  Reading the book today, one is haunted by the specter of today’s headlines which could well affect each of our ordinary lives.

School Of Fish

Just my luck to
have found a school of fish
who have been
taught the proper etiquette
of fine dining.

Served the bait,
table manners are followed
as, politely starting
at the edge, they savor each
nibble bit by bit.

Having been tutored
that it’s improper to gobble,
every worm cast
is sampled without haste
or undo greed.

Hunger abated, a hook’s
dessert is refused.

Dominant Hand

How effortlessly this hand is
folded into a fist.
The very same one held out
for a handshake,
that reaches around to meet
the other in a hug,
and clasped in prayer, asks
a creator’s pardon.
It’s been used to coax a purr
from a snuggling cat,
guide a child across the street,
pen a heartfelt poem.
Yet folded just so, it becomes
a potential weapon,
an ancient reflex sparked by
immediate reaction.
There is no talking sense to it.
Cocked and loaded,
clinched fingers angrily unite.

Awakenings

I will not accuse
the moon
of waking me.
After all,
it did tiptoe in.
Rather,
basking in
its unexpected
presence,
I’m grateful not
to be alone
at such an hour.

I confess that I’ve
never cried
attending funerals,
and so
these unexpected
tears surprise.
Who would have
thought an
owl’s call could
awaken
this late in life
a salty melancholy.

Imagine A City : A Pilot’s Journey Across The World / Mark Vanhoenacker

Mark Vanhoenacker is a Boeing airline pilot, and in an earlier book, Skyfaring (highly recommended), he documented the joys of soaring skyward at the controls of a jumbo jet.  In Imagine A City, he brings his perspective back down to the earth, while still using aircraft as his means to explore the globe.  Describing cities visited over his career as a pilot, he includes the readers as companions on his explorations.  This includes stopovers in Tokyo, Cape Town, Jeddah, Delhi and numerous other destinations.  

Woven into the story are chapters recounting his growing up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and his return to his birthplace throughout his adulthood.  As a young adult with a speech impediment and the realization he was gay, he spent his youth creating cities on paper, using a globe in his room to imagine their essence.  This is contrasted with what he found when he later actually visited these places as an adult.

This book is both a travelogue and a memoir.  It is a love letter to his birthplace and the numerous cities he’s visited throughout his career.  What make it special is the history of each city he describes.  He brings to life the spark that guaranteed their growth and continued existence.  For armchair travelers, Imagine A City provides a thoughtful exploration of tempting destinations, coupled with the importance of one’s birthplace.

Catastrophe Overstated

Unmoored, the landscape
takes flight, joined
by a clattering garbage can
now heading east.

The wind is marauding with
malicious intent.

Blanketed but unprotected,
mistrusting in
the grip of mortar and brick,
prayers are said.

When daylight finds trees
mostly upright,
the roof still attached
and catastrophe overstated,
calm is welcomed.

Blue skies and evaporating
puddles are already
discounting last night’s fury.

As we rake away
the storm’s scattered clutter,
a rueful breeze
placidly issues its apology

Autumn Quintet

Content with small gifts––
with hummingbirds’ departure,
morning sparrows feed

Autumn’s recipe
plain and simple––over grass,
leaves sprinkled with frost

In a faint slant of
afternoon light, children play
despite frosty breath

If twilight recalls
the blossom of June’s fireflies,
silence does not say

Blanketed, tucked into
a furnace’s heat, we welcome
tonight’s stone cold moon

Into The Raging Sea : Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, And The Sinking Of El Faro / Rachel Slade

In 2015, SS El Faro, a 790-foot container ship on its trip to Puerto Rico, sailed into the teeth of Joaquin, a category five hurricane, resulting in the deaths of its thirty-three member crew.  Drawing on the black box that recorded the conversations on the ship’s deck, author Rachel Slade masterfully recreates a “you are there” description of events, detailing the thoughts and actions of the crew as the weather forecast was ignored, resulting in the ship’s fateful decision to steer directly into the storm.

The author places blame on the ship’s captain who blithely discarded the concerns of other officers, basing his decisions on out of date weather forecasts.  But she also clearly shows how El Faro’s owner, a company that for years had been cutting staff and repairs to save money, was also culpable.  Throughout, they had no one monitoring the ship’s decisions, leaving them to a captain who, under pressure to enhance the company’s profits, chose to try to outrace the storm to ensure he completed the trip on time.

While the causes of El Faro’s sinking were numerous, Slade praises and details the efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard’s search and rescue team who risked their lives to rescue several other ships caught up in the storm. Unfortunately, El Faro sank before most of its crew could abandon ship.  Into The Raging Sea is a gripping read, and a chilling one.  Slade’s biographies of the crew members’ personal lives drive home the toll of this tragedy.  It presents not only the hubris of a domineering captain, but the faults of the ship’s owners who were concerned more about profits than the safety of the crews.  The fact that the investigation into the sinking resulted in a mere hand slap corporately shows that American companies have little reason to take safety concerns seriously.  Then, as now, profits are too often the driving factor no matter if this might result in the loss of lives.  This account of El Faro’s sinking is guaranteed to haunt.

Half-Opened Book

After the drabness of winter
how few colors
it takes to declare it a riot.

A southerly wind’s hallelujah
is an onslaught
that doesn’t bother to knock.

With the other senses already
captivated, how
can the fifth resist a touch.

Fresh off the press, spring is
a book half-opened
with the print not yet dry.

Even if fingers are left sticky
from the ink, we
bury our noses in its folds.

Perfect World

Now is the time for miracles.
In a more perfect world
this wine glass, inherited from
your family and used
last evening by the fireplace,
its tint of forest green
enhanced by dancing flames,
thin as a bee’s wing,
too delicate to have washed
with the heavier plates,
would through intercession
reassemble itself,
rise and be waiting for you
there on the top shelf,
joining the companionship
of the other three.
Or if that is asking too much,
if at least I could
fast forward past your eyes
brimming with tears
to another scene where all
has been forgiven
in a less than perfect world.