A Brutal Design
Zachary C. Solomon
Lanternfish, 2024, $19
We meet Samuel Zelnik at the ragged end of a long rail journey and learn that he has followed a shady uncle’s recommendation to flee from his shattered life in an unspecified country now ruled by fascists and relocate in Duma, a planned community in the desert that styles itself an egalitarian paradise. Samuel, an aspiring architect and close observer of detail, is disoriented and disillusioned by what he finds; Beacon resident Solomon keeps his dark tale moving like a bullet train through one subtly disturbing twist after another.
All of Us: Stories and Poems Along Route 17
Esther Cohen
Saddle Road Press, 2023, $21
Small towns are weirdly epic places, full of human foibles standing out in sharp relief against mundane backgrounds. Cohen, the author of six earlier books, led a writers’ group in Cairo; and served as executive director of the labor-centered nonprofit Bread and Roses, captures a quietly elegant, lovingly detailed portrait of one such town in upstate New York, with lyrical, intimate depictions of the housecleaners and solitary men, the careful wives and illicit lovers, the lifers and the newcomers as they face life’s twists and turns.
Jazz with a Beat: Small Group Swing, 1940-1960
Tad Richards
SUNY Press, 2024, $29.95
Louis Armstrong said that “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” Prolific local author and former Opus 40 creative director Tad Richards argues eloquently for the seminal role of the “soul jazz” made by small combos that kept people dancing through the 1950s and became known as rhythm and blues. Richards has clearly done his homework and recounts the adventures of these lesser-known and enormously listenable players and their impact on the birth of rock ‘n’ roll in meticulous and lively style.
Crossing Divides: My Journey to Standing Rock
Vernon Benjamin
Bushwhack Books, 2023, $12.95
The late Saugerties native Vernon Benjamin led a considered life: local reporter, historian, legislative aide to Congressman Maurice Hinchey in his state assembly days, and author of a definitive two-part History of the Hudson River Valley. In late November of 2016, at the age of 70, Benjamin impulsively set out for Standing Rock bearing hay and chocolate bars for the Water Protectors camping there. Kingston-based writer Will Nixon, a longtime Benjamin fan, adds just enough context to Benjamin’s humble and eloquent travelogue.
Catskill Creatures
Nancy Furstinger, illustrated by Bob Ebdon
Golden Notebook Press, 2024, $13.95
Parents, especially those new to country life, will enjoy this lively exposition of the lifestyles and survival strategies of familiar forest neighbors as much as their kids: engineering tactics of beavers, navigation skills of brown bats, and 13 more critters described in lively, relatable detail that will work as a read-aloud for just about any age. Wildlife advocate Furstinger, a Margaretville critter herself, adds practical info for human allies on making your neighborhood wildlife-friendly, along with what wildlife rehabbers are all about and where to find them.
This article appears in February 2024.
