Through a long absence : words from my father's wars Cover Image

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Through a long absence : words from my father's wars / Joy Passanante.

Passanante, Joy, 1947- (author.).

Summary:

More than just a World War II story, Through a Long Absence delves into one man's past to explore his personal wars: a stint as a child bootlegger, a marriage between newlyweds separated by continents and strained by years apart, and his struggle late in life with his own mind. The narrative propels readers to surprising places-from a freight train through North Africa to an underground St. Louis distillery during Prohibition, from a young couple's forbidden courtship to the chaos of surgical tents under fire in Normandy, from an underground trove of priceless artwork hidden by the Nazis to Jewish New Year services in Paris a week after its liberation. Through a Long Absence is a love story, an honest look into one man's life, and a daughter's moving quest to rediscover her father years later through his own words.

Record details

ISBN: 0814254241
ISBN: 9780814254240
Physical Description: 289 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Copyright: [2017]

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:

Leaving America -- North Africa-December 24, 1942 to July 28, 1943: The first field -- Bedside manor -- Absence -- Art blooms in Africa -- Bart and his daughter recall his boyhood in St. Louis -- The boxcar to Algeria -- The hospital in the racetrack -- Bertie, barely seventeen -- Singled out -- The good mother -- Yowee. they ain't kiddin' -- Bertie and Sammy -- A cliff and an olive grove -- Coming up in the world -- Sicily, Italy-July 30, 1943 to November 11, 1943: The real thing -- Dark corners -- A strange ebullience -- Shootout -- The spreading black cloud -- Enter spring -- A world light-years away -- Armed and ready -- Experienced travelers, the twenty-first century -- Bart and Benedetto -- The artist before la liberazione -- Stranger at the funeral-- England-November 26, 1943 to June 9, 1944: Tortworth Court -- Searching for a bridge to Wales -- Blaster Passanante -- The murky specter of change -- Here we go -- The twenty-first century-and the eighteenth -- France-June 10, 1944 to September 28, 1944: Normandy -- Ste.-Marie-du-Mont, Boutteville, the first eighteen days -- Pont l'Abbé -- La Cambe -- Marigny and Brecey -- Somewhere in France -- St. Louis, Bertie's letters imagined -- Normandy, the battle for memory, the twenty-first century -- Heldfor greater things -- After the liberation -- Holland-September 28, 1944 to March 1, 1945: The big push is underway -- The landscape, the portrait, and the tunnels -- Anything for a laugh -- Nancy Drew and the Hardy boy, the twenty-first century -- A picture a kid shouldn't see -- Germany-March 2, 1945 to July 7, 1945: Deep in the heart of Germany -- Witnessing -- The fragrance of roses -- The journey back -- The final field, the twenty-first century -- Restoration -- Epilogue: Leaving us.