Tributaries -- English through pictures -- The eve of the first -- The six purposes of drill -- Prospects -- Port of Milwaukee -- The second cook on the Henry L. Stimson -- They that go down to the sea -- Moonglade -- The shipmaster's ball -- This is your life -- Who is Bronisław Slinker? -- A dollar's worth -- The blondes of Wisconsin -- The vocabulary lesson -- Two blue roses in a teardrop vase.
Summary:
Like stones cast into a river, these sixteen moving, intimate stories illuminate how devotion and degeneration ripple through a working-class Polish American community in the postindustrial Midwest. At the heart of the collection is Eddie "The Bronko" Bronkowski, a boxer with a losing record whose reputation as a human punching bag precedes him. In each of Anthony Bukoski's rich stories, tough yet sympathetic characters -- the second cook on a Great Lakes freighter, a World War II veteran, the emcee of a female boxing troupe -- take all that life throws at them, protecting those around them as best they can. In Bukoski's interconnected tales, the heart seeks its due despite familial conflict, the challenges of maritime work, and the slow yet inexorable decline of dementia. Beautiful vignettes express transformative moments: tenderness that can turn a cardboard crown into gold and the faint ghosts of memories long forgotten. A tour-de-force, The Blondes of Wisconsin knows what love is, and what it means to lose it.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.