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This Boy
FROM CAMELOT TO DESPAIR IN A SINGLE DECADE
In an instant, young Danny Logan fell in love with a girl and a career. Only one was faithful.
Growing up on the streets of Hartford, Connecticut's South End in the tumultuous 1960's was a challenge in itself. For Logan, it meant having sharp wits, rock solid values and pride. But when he meets a girl who captures his heart with a single glance, he is torn between the neighborhood he knows — the place where he belongs — and a world of wealth beyond his dreams in a mansion at Fenwick on the shores of Long Island Sound.
When disloyalty crushes his fantasy, he finds a new life as a newspaperman covering the violence and divisiveness of racial unrest in the City and the bloody Vietnam conflict. His journey as a reporter and editor takes him through the headlines that mark the worst of the 60's and 70's, and harden him to the harsh realities of a new world.
In an instant, young Danny Logan fell in love with a girl and a career. Only one was faithful.
Growing up on the streets of Hartford, Connecticut's South End in the tumultuous 1960's was a challenge in itself. For Logan, it meant having sharp wits, rock solid values and pride. But when he meets a girl who captures his heart with a single glance, he is torn between the neighborhood he knows — the place where he belongs — and a world of wealth beyond his dreams in a mansion at Fenwick on the shores of Long Island Sound.
When disloyalty crushes his fantasy, he finds a new life as a newspaperman covering the violence and divisiveness of racial unrest in the City and the bloody Vietnam conflict. His journey as a reporter and editor takes him through the headlines that mark the worst of the 60's and 70's, and harden him to the harsh realities of a new world.
401 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 30, 2016
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February 8, 2017
The Beatles first U.S. album was a collection of addictive pop hits and fairly sugary ballads. It was 1964 and "Meet The Beatles" was as innocent and uncomplicated as the teenagers who bought it. The third song on the album, "This Boy", tells the familiar tale of deep, undying yet often unrequited love.
And so begins Mark Granato's newest novel. Danny Logan, a teenager from the rougher side of Hartford, Connecticut meets Elina Hanson. He's a good but streetwise kid from an imperfect family. She's exquisitely beautiful, extremely rich and utterly unobtainable. Yet, through a series of events, not the least of which is the 1965 Beatles Concert at Shea Stadium, Danny and Elina fall in love, and Logan becomes Elina's "This Boy".
But don't be misled. Granato's forte is historical fiction, and he weaves the story of Danny and Elina through a decade where the couple--not unlike our nation itself--is faced with the realities of a changing social and political climate. And by giving Logan a job at a local newspaper, Granato has created the perfect vehicle for us to watch history unfold.
Urban decay. Martin Luther King. Racial unrest. Bobby Kennedy. Riots in the streets. Johnson. Vietnam. Moon landing. Cambodia. Nixon. Student protests. Political indifference.
Like few others, Mark Granato delivers not just a recounting of events, but brings them alive--gives them a face and a soul. Most memorable for me, is a letter Danny Logan receives from his best friend Eddie, now serving in Vietnam. It's 1968, and Eddie tells of how he and the men around him feel abandoned and betrayed by their government. They question the war. They doubt their survival. They distrust authority. They are without hope or recourse. In that letter, Granato tells not only a soldier's story, but foreshadows a growing discontent at home as economic and ideological schisms widen and violence erupts.
As Granato, with his painstaking attention to detail, reminds us of one of the most divisive and tumultuous eras in American history, "This Boy" becomes something more.
It becomes...important.
Important as history, to be sure. Granato exposes the actions, inactions and reactions that brought about so much anger and sorrow, yet so little real change....Which makes it important today as well. I can't avoid seeing parallels between the 60s/70s and the present. Will the government and big corporations continue to lift some of us and oppress others? Will we, as a nation, value humanity? Will there ever be 'peace with honor'?
What can we do? Well, as Danny's boss says, "Care, Dan. Care about people and their lives."
We can start by being aware of the situations that cause the problems. Learn your history.
And a great place to begin is with "This Boy".
And so begins Mark Granato's newest novel. Danny Logan, a teenager from the rougher side of Hartford, Connecticut meets Elina Hanson. He's a good but streetwise kid from an imperfect family. She's exquisitely beautiful, extremely rich and utterly unobtainable. Yet, through a series of events, not the least of which is the 1965 Beatles Concert at Shea Stadium, Danny and Elina fall in love, and Logan becomes Elina's "This Boy".
But don't be misled. Granato's forte is historical fiction, and he weaves the story of Danny and Elina through a decade where the couple--not unlike our nation itself--is faced with the realities of a changing social and political climate. And by giving Logan a job at a local newspaper, Granato has created the perfect vehicle for us to watch history unfold.
Urban decay. Martin Luther King. Racial unrest. Bobby Kennedy. Riots in the streets. Johnson. Vietnam. Moon landing. Cambodia. Nixon. Student protests. Political indifference.
Like few others, Mark Granato delivers not just a recounting of events, but brings them alive--gives them a face and a soul. Most memorable for me, is a letter Danny Logan receives from his best friend Eddie, now serving in Vietnam. It's 1968, and Eddie tells of how he and the men around him feel abandoned and betrayed by their government. They question the war. They doubt their survival. They distrust authority. They are without hope or recourse. In that letter, Granato tells not only a soldier's story, but foreshadows a growing discontent at home as economic and ideological schisms widen and violence erupts.
As Granato, with his painstaking attention to detail, reminds us of one of the most divisive and tumultuous eras in American history, "This Boy" becomes something more.
It becomes...important.
Important as history, to be sure. Granato exposes the actions, inactions and reactions that brought about so much anger and sorrow, yet so little real change....Which makes it important today as well. I can't avoid seeing parallels between the 60s/70s and the present. Will the government and big corporations continue to lift some of us and oppress others? Will we, as a nation, value humanity? Will there ever be 'peace with honor'?
What can we do? Well, as Danny's boss says, "Care, Dan. Care about people and their lives."
We can start by being aware of the situations that cause the problems. Learn your history.
And a great place to begin is with "This Boy".
Displaying 1 of 1 review