Come to my Book Launch Party!
Family histories are often the inspiration for novels, nonfiction books, and memoirs. My recently published work of historical fiction, Caravans in the Dark, is a case in point. It was inspired by a question I asked myself. “What would have happened if my Czech ancestors had not immigrated to the United States but, instead, they had met, married, and stayed in what was then Bohemia?”
The answer was, my mother could, conceivably, have been born there, and would have lived through the invasion and occupation of the Nazis during WWII, followed by the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union. What would that have been like? That question led to research into that time and place, and a visit to the Czech Republic to experience some of the places I’d read about and, ultimately, to writing the historical fiction novel, Caravans in the Dark.
Recently I have read two books, inspired by the experiences of grandfathers, that fall in the categories of non-fiction and memoir.
The first was The Emperor and the Peasant, a work of nonfiction by Professor Emeritus Kenneth Janda. It was inspired by the experiences of his wife’s grandfather, Samuel Mozolak. Samuel was a Slovak laborer who, like so many of his generation, sought a better life. He sailed to New York City. There, he married a Slovak girl and fathered twins. The family returned to Slovakia with their nest egg. Unfortunately, Samuel was then drafted into the army, sent to fight in WWI, and died in the war. Ultimately, his descendants, including the father of the author’s wife , returned to the United States and remained there.
In this book, Mozolak’s experiences are juxtaposed with those of the rulers who ignited the war, and exhibited little or no concern for the men who would fight for them. This wide-ranging work encompasses European history and politics, as well as the experiences of Slovakian immigrants to the United States.
Professor Janda will join me in a conversation, at my book launch party, about our works, and how they relate to the history of the Czech and Slovak lands.
The second book I recently read was The Butcher, the Embezzler and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry, by Gretchen Cherington. It was also inspired by the experiences of a grandfather, Alpha LA Rue Eberhart. Reading this book is like visiting with a favorite aunt. Imagine yourself sitting with her on her open porch, in Austin Minnesota, as she pulls newspaper clippings and letters out of a memory box and spins a tale of what happened, what might have happened, and the implications of it all, all the while dropping in facts about the history of the Hormel Company, and memories of her own life. Meanwhile, an occasional shift in the wind reminds one of the not-so-savory facts of pork raising and processing. Gretchen masterfully keeps you turning the pages to find out what happened, and keeps you guessing, right up to the end, if her grandfather was “the fall guy” or if he was an embezzler.
Bonnie's Books & Things 
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