Three weeks on a train across Siberia — two Americans, 6,000 miles in second class, and most of the travelers drinking. That’s adventure, vulnerability and a book.
“The Iron Scar: A Father and Son in Siberia” by Bob Kunzinger of Deltaville (Madville, 168 pp., April 21) is, in my partial reading, a vivid and often poetic exploration of the personal and the historical, from poignant to hilarious.
Kunzinger, long a humanities professor in Hampton Roads, has written several other books and counts at least 28 trips to Russia, where he’s taught and led study abroad programs. In this book, Michael is 20; his father, in his 50s: “I want to figure out what is next as a father whose son is moving on and as a son whose father is moving on as well.” How to let go, to start over?
From Yekaterinburg to the Sea of Japan, the four-bunk fare means multiple Russian cabin mates and a “shared space which for most fathers and sons can be avoided at home.”
Influential here are Russian writers and laborers; writer Bob Shacochis; Michael’s skill with a harmonica; a game, “train songs”; “Moscow time” (it rules the trains, no matter which of seven time zones they’re in); other fathers and sons — czars, railroad engineers, and Dima with father Sergei, a decorated veteran of the Siege of Leningrad. Fleeting scenes say much: the cabin mate who, never looking up, ousts an intruder with a single word that makes the man blanch.
I’ll happily keep reading.
— Erica Smith
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New from Tim Seibles, the nationally acclaimed Norfolk poet: “Voodoo Libretto: New and Selected Poems” (Etruscan Press). At 6:30 p.m. April 2, reading and Q&A. Taste, 407 W. 21st St., Norfolk. 757-416-6020.
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Also local
Michael J. Hebert, Gloucester: “Ever Vigilant: Tales of the Vietnam War.” On his time in 1969-70 as an Army patrol boat operator in the 458th Sea Tigers. Hebert is a retired captain with the Miss Hampton II harbor tour. (Gunboat Press, 306 pp.)
Jeff Schnader, Norfolk: “The Serpent Papers.” One friend enlists to fight in Vietnam; the other goes to Columbia, with its counterculture and anti-war protests. (Permanent Press, 302 pp.)
Michael Shelton, Virginia Beach: “West Point Admiral: Leadership Lessons From Four Decades of Military Service.” Shelton is a retired rear admiral whose tours included four in Norfolk, three of them command tours. (Acclaim Press, 368 pp.)
In the pipeline
J.E. Tobin, Williamsburg: “When We Were Wolves,” a novel. A man has long kept a secret about his town’s celebrity coach. Then news breaks. (May 15, Williamsburg’s Pale Horse Books.)
D.M. (Debra) Frech, Norfolk: “Words from Walls,” a poetry chapbook. (June 21, Finishing Line Press.)
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New and recent
Alex Kershaw, “Against All Odds: A True Story of Ultimate Courage and Survival in World War II.” On four of the most decorated Americans of the war, all in one unit in Europe: Maurice “Footsie” Britt, Michael Daly, Keith Ware and Audie Murphy. (Dutton Caliber, 368 pp.)
Also: Marie Yovanovich, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, “Lessons From the Edge” … Anne Tyler, “French Braid,” the story of a Baltimore family from the ’50s into the pandemic. … Lisa Scottoline, “What Happened to the Bennetts.”
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Note to readers
After about 770 editions, the weekly Literary Notes column is hanging it up (as is its writer, the books section editor). Books coverage will continue in The Sunday Break and at PilotOnline.com and DailyPress.com. Please send notices of major author talks and festivals to daily.break@pilotonline.com. Thanks for reading.
— Erica Smith, erica.smith@pilotonline.com
