Easter Sunday 1956: A Family Memoir 9780692634509

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Автор: Bird Patrick J.
Название: Easter Sunday 1956: A Family Memoir
ISBN: 9780692634509
Классификация: ISBN-10: 0692634509
Обложка/Формат: Paperback
Страницы: 136
Вес: 0.19 кг.
Дата издания: 16.06.2016
Язык: English
Размер: 229 x 152 x 7
Поставляется из: США
Описание: Poignant, yet often funny, Easter Sunday 1956 tells of a tragedy in the life of a New York City working-class family. The story begins on Easter Eve as the City of Swansea docks at Brooklyns Pier 5. Jack, ships carpenter, watches the mooring lines being secured. Melancholia dampens his usual high spirits on arrival in port. For this is his last ship. On return to Liverpool, he is to retire after fifty years in the British Merchant Service. But Jack will never return to England. In Astoria, Bill, a hard drinking house painter, has placed chairs from OShays Funeral around his living room for guests attending his brothers retirement party. He then has gone off to ODonnells Bar for a quick one. In the kitchen, Bills wife, Nan, a feisty Irish woman with MS, and her spinster sister, Margaret, debate the sinfulness of viewing TV wrestlin. Jack arrives, is fondly greeted, and dispatched by Nan to rescue the ol goat from the bar. Seven-year-old Johnny comes home and is sent after his pop and uncle who have been delayed by a failed jockeys bizarre story. Johnny returns, men in tow, and with a joke for his mom. The OShays chairs are mostly occupied, including by an accordionist and banjo player. Rounds of singing, Jacks rendition of The Pig and the Inebriate, and Nans story of Irelands sacred donkeys kick off the festivities. With alcohol and time, the party degenerates and concludes with a human tug-o-war that humiliates Bill, mortifies Johnny, and infuriates his mom. Later Nan enters Johnnys bedroom cradling a bust of Winston Churchill, Bills prize possession. Johnny, half asleep, watches her open the bedroom window and shove the statesman out. The bust drops two stories to the alleyway. She closes the window. He prays it is a dream; its not. On Easter Sunday, Bill and Johnny visit the Swansea. After a surprise welcome aboard, they tour the ship, ending in the First Mates cabin with other seamen. In the midst of sailor talk, Johnny all ears, Jack leaves and returns as King Neptune-cardboard crown, mop beard, burlap vest, long dried-up grass skirt-to elevate Johnny from a soft-bellied pollywog to a first-rate shellback. As the ritual proceeds, a sailor sweeps a lit match along Neptunes grass skirt. The fire catches. Jack bursts into flames. He races from the cabin. The men chase after him. Johnny dazed, face singed, follows to find his uncle on a shower room floor, horribly burnt. Johnny is taken to the deck. Left alone, in shock and tears, he is calmed by seagulls begging-what-ya-got-for-me While Jack is carried from the ship, he passes something to Bill. Father and son then leave the Swansea and stop at a waterfront saloon. There Johnny is distracted from the tragedy by the barmaids history of her establishment. Bill gulps several boilermakers and phones his wife. They then go to the hospital where Johnny sees his pop cry for the first time, ever. On the L home, Bill shows Johnny what Jack had given him-a blackened thumb. Astounded, Johnny asks what he will do with it. Bill tosses the thumb out of the train window. Johnny tries to leave the train to retrieve it: Well get arrested Its a real thumb His pop stops him: Dont worry, son-the stray dog or the odd rat will make short work of it. At the grand internment days later, Johnny wonders if God gave Uncle Jack his thumb back in heaven: But what, he muses, if hes in Purgatory-or worse. Gods not in those places. A reception at the Irish Oaks Tavern follows the burial. There Tony Bennett, Astorias own, croons from the jukebox. Bill is consoled with free drinks. Nan shares titillating gossip about a Monsignor with woman friends. Johnny sips a coke at the bar. He desperately wants to go home. Meanwhile, the Swansea heads for Liverpool, minus its old carpenter-and life goes on reaffirming that fact is indeed stranger than fiction: in families, God help us, even more so.

Easter Sunday 1956: A Family Memoir, Bird Patrick J.