Would like a pretitle, i.e. A Santa Fean's (smaller font, italics) line above Coffeebreak Journal. A collection of essays originally published as a weekly column by the Santa Fe New Mexican's Sunday arts supplement. Provocative insights into the life of an artist/writer -- his family and friends, extensive travels, experiences in World War II. An incisive and personal perspective of life in the 20th century by one of Santa Fe's most renowned long-time residents of the celebrated art colony.
Collected for the first time, these prize-winning Christmas tales—carols—of Drew Bacigalupa range in time and place from mid-20th century to the new millennium, from remote mountain villages in New Mexico to the sophisticated neighborhoods of Rome, from children in country fields or on city streets to young soldiers at combat areas, to parents and grandparents at home or abroad. Whether in the United States, Mexico, England, France or Italy, the diverse peoples of these brief but luminous stories share the joy—and sometimes apprehension—we’ve all known as winter solstice heralds the approach of Christmas. Uniting all is the theme of renewal, the promise of longer days and return of the sun, and our uniquely individual gifts which brighten The Child in each of us. The illustrations are from original works by Bacigalupa—his paintings, drawings, ceramics and sculptures, testament to the artist/writer’s work in many media, his conviction that all the arts are essentially communication. Heavily influenced by Renaissance Man following graduate studies at “L’Accademia di Belli Arti” in Florence, he frequently refers to the journals and poems of sculptor/painter Michelangelo and the notebooks and dissertations of painter/sculptor/inventor Leonardo as examples of men who employed whatever medium was best suited to communicate differing concepts demanding expression. Though a resident of Santa Fe since 1954 and one who loves the American Southwest, DREW BACIGALUPA is an inveterate traveler whose works have doggedly resisted regionalism. His published books include the World War II novel And Come to Dust, set in Belgium and Germany; “Since My Last Confession,” a spiritual journey and love story which follows the protagonist throughout the U.S. and across Europe; “Journal of an Itinerant Artist,” essays which roam the globe and embrace peoples of ethnic diversity. His stories, features and articles have appeared in numerous national newspapers and periodicals in this country and—in translation—in Italy. He first gained encouragement as a writer at the age of ten by winning a prize with an adventure story submitted to a writing contest in his hometown’s newspaper “The Baltimore Sun.”
The spiritual journey of a young artist at mid-20th century, Since My Last Confession sensitively probes the faith and doubts of a pre-Vatican II cradle-born Roman Catholic. Luke at an early age is profoundly influenced by priests and nuns at school, later at work he pursues, in the army during World War II, and in post-war Europe while a graduate student in Florence. A wide circle of friends and experiences introduce him to other Christian denominations and other faiths, contributing to struggles he’s known with Catholic dogma since a teenager. Irrevocably bound to a Church which he questions and from which he’s alienated, Luke’s spiritual dilemma is heightened by professional setbacks, economic hardships, and rootlessness. When he falls in love with a privileged Jewish college student, Esther, he’s forced to face hard decisions about his faith, his work, commitments. A novel in which characters struggle with the persistent dichotomies of the sacred and the profane, Since My Last Confession confronts the challenges facing all of good faith during tumultuous eras of radical social change.
The first time I saw Kirstin de Furia after all those years, I thought she was mad." So begins her story told to us by Kirstin's childhood and lifelong friend Frank, a man often exasperated by her irrational actions but bound to her as closely as the men she marries and the children she bears.Kirstin's search for ethnic identity and her love of the arts trigger desertion of her famous husband and brilliant young son in New York to the world of internationally celebrated artists in Italy. She falls in love with painter Paolo Dardi, bears his "love-child," and the world's press-paparazzi, the press, television-launch a scandal from which there's no retreat, and which becomes legend. Set in Manhattan, Florence, Hollywood and Mexico during the second half of the twentieth century, the story is rich with Kirstin's irrepressibly colorful lovers, friends and enemies, her adored children in the not-so-distant time when sexual relationships were rarely considered casual.
Collected for the first time, these prize-winning Christmas tales—carols—of Drew Bacigalupa range in time and place from mid-20th century to the new millennium, from remote mountain villages in New Mexico to the sophisticated neighborhoods of Rome, from children in country fields or on city streets to young soldiers at combat areas, to parents and grandparents at home or abroad. Whether in the United States, Mexico, England, France or Italy, the diverse peoples of these brief but luminous stories share the joy—and sometimes apprehension—we’ve all known as winter solstice heralds the approach of Christmas. Uniting all is the theme of renewal, the promise of longer days and return of the sun, and our uniquely individual gifts which brighten The Child in each of us. The illustrations are from original works by Bacigalupa—his paintings, drawings, ceramics and sculptures, testament to the artist/writer’s work in many media, his conviction that all the arts are essentially communication. Heavily influenced by Renaissance Man following graduate studies at “L’Accademia di Belli Arti” in Florence, he frequently refers to the journals and poems of sculptor/painter Michelangelo and the notebooks and dissertations of painter/sculptor/inventor Leonardo as examples of men who employed whatever medium was best suited to communicate differing concepts demanding expression. Though a resident of Santa Fe since 1954 and one who loves the American Southwest, DREW BACIGALUPA is an inveterate traveler whose works have doggedly resisted regionalism. His published books include the World War II novel And Come to Dust, set in Belgium and Germany; “Since My Last Confession,” a spiritual journey and love story which follows the protagonist throughout the U.S. and across Europe; “Journal of an Itinerant Artist,” essays which roam the globe and embrace peoples of ethnic diversity. His stories, features and articles have appeared in numerous national newspapers and periodicals in this country and—in translation—in Italy. He first gained encouragement as a writer at the age of ten by winning a prize with an adventure story submitted to a writing contest in his hometown’s newspaper “The Baltimore Sun.”
The spiritual journey of a young artist at mid-20th century, Since My Last Confession sensitively probes the faith and doubts of a pre-Vatican II cradle-born Roman Catholic. Luke at an early age is profoundly influenced by priests and nuns at school, later at work he pursues, in the army during World War II, and in post-war Europe while a graduate student in Florence. A wide circle of friends and experiences introduce him to other Christian denominations and other faiths, contributing to struggles he’s known with Catholic dogma since a teenager. Irrevocably bound to a Church which he questions and from which he’s alienated, Luke’s spiritual dilemma is heightened by professional setbacks, economic hardships, and rootlessness. When he falls in love with a privileged Jewish college student, Esther, he’s forced to face hard decisions about his faith, his work, commitments. A novel in which characters struggle with the persistent dichotomies of the sacred and the profane, Since My Last Confession confronts the challenges facing all of good faith during tumultuous eras of radical social change.
The first time I saw Kirstin de Furia after all those years, I thought she was mad." So begins her story told to us by Kirstin's childhood and lifelong friend Frank, a man often exasperated by her irrational actions but bound to her as closely as the men she marries and the children she bears.Kirstin's search for ethnic identity and her love of the arts trigger desertion of her famous husband and brilliant young son in New York to the world of internationally celebrated artists in Italy. She falls in love with painter Paolo Dardi, bears his "love-child," and the world's press-paparazzi, the press, television-launch a scandal from which there's no retreat, and which becomes legend. Set in Manhattan, Florence, Hollywood and Mexico during the second half of the twentieth century, the story is rich with Kirstin's irrepressibly colorful lovers, friends and enemies, her adored children in the not-so-distant time when sexual relationships were rarely considered casual.
A love story set in the final months of World War II. Against the backdrop of bombed, skeletal towns and cities within Germany, American GIs battle not only the tenacious enemy but personal demons, despair and the descent into madness. Defying military regulations which prohibit fraternization, Drake woos and wins Fraulein Klara, a deserter from the Wehrmacht. Drake's comrade-in-arms Trapani, an American soldier of Italian/Jewish origin, struggles with his friend's embrace of a German girl, and with his own dilemma of racial identity and Nazi atrocities. The destines of these three very young people are irrevocably - shockingly - determined amid the ravaged ruins of a Rhineland city during the final days of the war. Moving between military sites in Belgium and Germany, the story introduces many of Drake's and Trapani's comrades - most in their late teens or early twenties - from their anti-aircraft battalion. It is a tale of Boys at War, and of the grievous psychic wounds which force them to become Men or destory them. The author completed this book in 1950 while a veteran with fresh memories of the war in Europe.
Suffering the loss of his beloved dog Pirata, Franco, a child in Rome, does not look forward to the approaching Christmas until he passes the wagon of a chestnut vendor and sees a familiar animal tied there.
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