Mark Kurlansky on Battle Fatigue
Student Literary Encounters--High School
Friday, Nov. 18, 9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m., Auditorium (Building 1, 2nd Floor, Room 1261)
Growing up in the years following World War II, Joel Bloom and his friends dreamed of either fighting in the military or leading the Dodgers to the World Series. But when Joel turns eighteen, the Vietnam War is in full swing, and the sides of war he learned about as a child are not nearly as clear. Old enough to be drafted, Joel loves his country but knows he cannot fight in an unjust war. After trying and failing to be a Conscientious Objector, he must decide whether to serve in Vietnam or leave for Canada-a decision that would help him avoid the violence of war but force him to leave behind those he loves and turn his back on everything he was brought up to believe. In an insightful and compelling novel from bestselling nonfiction writer Mark Kurlansky comes an exploration of one teen's struggle to understand himself amid the harsh realities of life during wartime.
This session has been reserved for Miami-Dade County Public School students only. Attendance will be coordinated by MDCPS administrators.
Author(s) and Guest(s)
Mark Kurlansky
Mark Kurlansky's thought-provoking book, What?: Are These the 20 Most Important Questions in Human History--Or is This a Game of 20 Questions? (Walker & Co., $15.00), draws on philosophy, religion, literature, policy -- indeed, all of civilization -- to ask what may well be the twenty most important questions in human history. With Kurlansky's striking black-and-white woodcut illustrations throughout, What?, according to Booklist, "sneaks up on us and, in the end, leaves us with a new appreciation for the power of the question mark." Kurlansky is The New York Times bestselling author of Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World and Salt: A World History.
In Kurlansky's young adult novel, Battle Fatigue (Walker Childrens, $17.99), Joel Bloom and his friends, growing up in WWII, dreamed of either fighting in the military or leading the Dodgers to the World Series. When Joel turns eighteen, the Vietnam War is in full swing, and the choices are not nearly as clear. Joel loves his country but knows he cannot fight in an unjust war. He must decide whether to serve in Vietnam or leave for Canada -- a decision that would force him to leave behind those he loves and turn his back on everything he was brought up to believe.
As Kurlansky reveals in Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn't Want to Be One (Yale Press, $25.00), though Greenberg was one of the first players to challenge Babe Ruth's single-season record of sixty home runs, it was the game Greenberg did not play for which he is best remembered. With his decision to sit out a 1934 game because it fell on Yom Kippur, Hank Greenberg became a hero to Jews throughout America. Yet, he was also the quintessential secular Jew, and a man of immense dignity and restraint.
Schedule
Location
Miami Book Fair International * Miami Dade College
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132
Auditorium (Building 1, 2nd Floor, Room 1261)
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