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American Wop - Beaver Buffalo Buttons Brass Boxing and Beer: That's why you're here!
“American Wop: Beaver Buffalo Buttons Brass Boxing and Beer: That’s why you’re here” shouts out our human history and social dilemma that contributed the rise of the American Wop (and American Flop.) The stories come from Jack’s Grandfather who taught the foundations of life through the art of boxing’s history and discipline, which couples with his Great Grandfathers story about colonialism, industrialization, marketing, and technological change. Jack’s Uncle Joe a boxing savant tells the worlds history of boxing that meshes with the fabric of our history, storytelling, comedy and politics. Joe ties the stories together illuminating the hubris of the times. The hero’s vignettes with their situations, shortfalls and downfalls are artfully woven together showing them to be vibrant stoic characters that are suffering bitterly in the wake of the changing technological landscape. Interactions of four generations simultaneously give a needed wide view lacking in today’s works.
The first part of the book American Wop begins with the authors experience in his ancestral Scotland while his Grandfather lay dying in the US. A phone call signaled his Grandfathers impending end was really an announcement made years before. The surreal events leading to death drives his Grandfathers departure home.
The author weaves their history together in a form that brings together the first-rate appeal of the characters, their forgotten society and our Americana. Jacks time spent brushing shoulders with World Champion Boxers with hilarity and tear-jerking results shows the famous characters never published true colors.
As Uncle Joe always said - there's a story in here - for everyone! Please enjoy the story while learning something of why you're here.
The first part of the book American Wop begins with the authors experience in his ancestral Scotland while his Grandfather lay dying in the US. A phone call signaled his Grandfathers impending end was really an announcement made years before. The surreal events leading to death drives his Grandfathers departure home.
The author weaves their history together in a form that brings together the first-rate appeal of the characters, their forgotten society and our Americana. Jacks time spent brushing shoulders with World Champion Boxers with hilarity and tear-jerking results shows the famous characters never published true colors.
As Uncle Joe always said - there's a story in here - for everyone! Please enjoy the story while learning something of why you're here.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
240 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 7, 2012
3 people are currently reading
294 people want to read
About the author
Jack Tar
1 book90 followers
Jack spent his childhood in Waterbury, Connecticut and on Long Islands South Shore. On the Island he repaired and worked on wood boats that he used for digging clams. When not fishing Great South Bay, Jack worked on a "truck farm" and often brought produce to Hunts Point Market. After high school, he worked in the oil patches of Canada and the United States.
Jack attended the University of North Carolina and became immersed in liberal arts and management while working in construction. After college, he studied electronics and computer technologies while he worked on nuclear submarine systems at the United States Sub base in Holy Loch Scotland. Returning to the States, he completed an MBA before working in the United States Merchant Marine.
His travels have taken him through most of Europe, Africa, Asia, Middle East, and Micronesia. Careful note taking and photojournalism enabled him to make his stories and observations come alive and available to his readers.
Jacks concern has always been to mesh the history of an area with the trials faced by those who he lived and worked with.
see more on http://www.AmericanWop.com
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 17, 2016
A wonderful write that I could not put away. This would be a perfect book for anyone. It would be a good book for high schools students who need a backbone too their history..
April 9, 2011
I loved this book. Would rate it more than 5 stars, if I could!
Before you read it, go to the homepage http://www.americanwop.com/and get "in the mood".
The description of the story, here on Goodreads, is already perfect, so I will not add to that. (Would not be competent enough to do so anyway... I know my limits...)
I can honestly say that, to me, it was the sucker-punch of the year.
And thats what I am looking for in a book. A roller-coaster-ride of emotions, memories and thoughts written by a genuine person, willing to tear himself apart to be able to share it with me... trough a book.
To me it read like a diary. Kind of detached bits of a puzzle, that in the end give you the full picture of who and what Jack Tar is. And why he became the guy with a heart of a lion, soul of a poet and fists of a true fighter.
At times it was hard to keep reading, and yes in the last third of the book I cried. My own closeness to some of it, was painful. But it was SO worth going on.
For those of you who like Christopher Hibbert, Jack Kerouac or/and Stephen Crane go for it! For those who don't... don't!
Before you read it, go to the homepage http://www.americanwop.com/and get "in the mood".
The description of the story, here on Goodreads, is already perfect, so I will not add to that. (Would not be competent enough to do so anyway... I know my limits...)
I can honestly say that, to me, it was the sucker-punch of the year.
And thats what I am looking for in a book. A roller-coaster-ride of emotions, memories and thoughts written by a genuine person, willing to tear himself apart to be able to share it with me... trough a book.
To me it read like a diary. Kind of detached bits of a puzzle, that in the end give you the full picture of who and what Jack Tar is. And why he became the guy with a heart of a lion, soul of a poet and fists of a true fighter.
At times it was hard to keep reading, and yes in the last third of the book I cried. My own closeness to some of it, was painful. But it was SO worth going on.
For those of you who like Christopher Hibbert, Jack Kerouac or/and Stephen Crane go for it! For those who don't... don't!
February 3, 2012
Jack Tar is a rebel.
The prose is disconnected in the best way possible and very often dream like, though at times incredibly rich and factually packed. I find myself floating back into many of the scenes he's written. I assume because, I have had these similar, familiar thoughts myself, and they become recognized and truly alive though his work.
Jack is recreating what I believe must be an oral history. The story line reads personally, through characters who have not only felt but lived our American history. His vision is large and often very intense. Many times reading this work I felt as though the characters knew there was a better way to live, than mired in struggle, and if not acting toward that better life, regularly thinking and dreaming it.
I found the work to be in many ways, a mash up of a fictional 'people's history of the united states', because of the books extensive working class history and a tighter 'original scroll' because of the characters' challenge and creativity to find the ways to forge ahead.
There are, humbly speaking, too many topics to discuss in this review. Jack Tar isn't perfect and certainly won't (though will approach) get all the way there, but! the work is experimental and astronomical in perspective. I certainly hope people find their way to this work.
The prose is disconnected in the best way possible and very often dream like, though at times incredibly rich and factually packed. I find myself floating back into many of the scenes he's written. I assume because, I have had these similar, familiar thoughts myself, and they become recognized and truly alive though his work.
Jack is recreating what I believe must be an oral history. The story line reads personally, through characters who have not only felt but lived our American history. His vision is large and often very intense. Many times reading this work I felt as though the characters knew there was a better way to live, than mired in struggle, and if not acting toward that better life, regularly thinking and dreaming it.
I found the work to be in many ways, a mash up of a fictional 'people's history of the united states', because of the books extensive working class history and a tighter 'original scroll' because of the characters' challenge and creativity to find the ways to forge ahead.
There are, humbly speaking, too many topics to discuss in this review. Jack Tar isn't perfect and certainly won't (though will approach) get all the way there, but! the work is experimental and astronomical in perspective. I certainly hope people find their way to this work.
April 18, 2011
This book is a must read for anyone who has any family who have come over from THE OLD COUNTRY.. Jacks stories about his family are a hoot. The history woven into the story will make one wonder ,how did we ever let these things happen,and why do we keep letting it go on? Do yourself a favor read this book,and give a copy to a friend or two.
January 10, 2012
This is not a book you want to hurry through,you might miss something. So much history is slid in between these pages in a conversational way that you can't help but be drawn in. Me, a person whom can get easily bored with history related in just the factual,this is what happened type of delivery, found it quite entertaining as well as informative.
March 10, 2020
Jack Tar's American Wop is a tour through family history complete with rollicking prose and deep reference to Americana (not to mention Gypsies, Scots, and Italians!). The narrative is refreshing in its slow burn movement across the past and the present; Jack's peppering of anecdotes that pair with the plot of American Wop is what will keep you invested in what happens next. Sad, serene, funny, and at times mad, you'll want to take the ride that is American Wop.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews