Half-Past Nowhere

by Joseph Cavano

Set in the scenic mountains and college towns of upstate New York, as well as the author s beloved South, Half-Past Nowhere, chronicles the life of boy as he passes from innocence to experience. Written in a style that evokes Hemingway and Faulkner, experience the struggles of our young hero from an abusive childhood, through the joys and pains of young love and finally, self discovery. At times humorous, this collection is filled with memorable characters and real life obstacles.If you were ever young you may find yourself here.

Genres: Fiction

155 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2008

About the author

After spending a significant part of my life teaching English in the secondary schools and colleges of upstate New York, I followed the advice of former teachers from grade school to graduate school and became a writer. Within the first two years, I had put together two collections of related short stories, Half -Past Nowhere, and Love Songs in Minor Keys. Each was accepted for publication by the first and only publisher I contacted.
Patterned after Hemingway's In Our Time, Half-past Nowhere traces the growth of a young hero as he passes from the innocence to the understanding that comes only with experience. Two of the included stories, "Mountain Men" and "Phineas Rising, "the first and the third story I ever wrote for publication, were selected as finalists by Glimmer Train, one of the most prestigious venues for the short story.

The second collection,Love Songs in Minor Keys is a study of human relationships in all of their many and oftentimes destructive manifestations. As the title suggests, the stories function as do minor keys in music.Unlike major keys, which are often bright and reassuring,minor keys suggest more complexity, a kind of intensity reserved for the unorthodox or unexpected,while still retaining enough of the familiar to be easily recognizable. The collection makes for easy,if thought provoking reading. I am very grateful to Anthony Abbott,(Ph.D Harvard)legendary professor of literature at Davidson College,himself a published poet/novelist and Pulitzer Prize nominee,as well as David Geherin,(Ph.D, Purdue) short story specialist at Eastern Michigan University, and a candidate for the 2009 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best book of literary criticism, for their kind comments.
Many of my stories have won awards and appeared in well-respected literary magazines. "Soldier's," a story about a chance encounter with a broken Vietnam veteran was selected as a finalist in both the 2010 Doris Betts and the 2010 Elizabeth Simpson Smith Fiction Contest, while another,the controversial "The Honey Wagon," was awarded second place in the 2011 Doris Betts Fiction Prize and appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of the prestigious North Carolina Literary Review.
Another recent story, "Story Cloth," appeared in the 2012 Spring issue of Potomac Review, while the disturbing "The Widow's Tale," has been selected by editor Cliff Garstang to appear in the Press 53 Fall 2014 anthology, Everywhere Stories: Fiction from a Small Planet.

Over the years, I've developed a myriad of interests.One of the most challenging has been improvising jazz on piano. Doing so involves a process not unlike the one a writer utilizes in creating a work of fiction. In each case,you don't know where you are going until you get there. That element of discovery is one of the most satisfying things about writing,and a point I often demonstrate at book signings.

Having been born in "the Charmed Circle" of the Catskill Mts., it's not surprising that Nature figures prominently in many of my stories,although always as a backdrop for some universal law(the verities Faulkner called them).
A one time wine connoisseur,ginseng hunter,fly fisherman,rattlesnake hunter(pictures only) and still world traveler(India is my favorite by far) I happily reside in the South among the bones of Faulkner,Welty,Twain, Capote et al.

I have an M.A. in English from American University in Washington,D.C., and a B.A.in English from Marist College in Poughkeepsie,N.Y. I have also studied philosophy at the graduate level at Georgetown and have several advanced degrees in Education.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's a bit of shameless self promotion.You can also check out Amazon for some unbiased reviews.

In a little more than a year, the estimable Mr. Cavano put together this related collection(patterned after Hemingway's In Our Time) and had it selected for publication by the first and only publisher he contacted.(Sad to say ,he's a bit lazy).Two of the included stories,have already been selected as finalists by Glimmer Train.Glimmer train is, of course, internationally recognized as one of the most respected of venues for the short story.He speaks widely , is one of two featured speakers at the Christmas meeting of the prestigious Charlotte Writers Club, and has already had a publisher ask to see his almost completed collection, Love Songs in Minor Keys.Most importantly,as writer's works become much more valuable after their deaths, you might want totake advantage. I believe I am coming down with a very bad cold.

P.S. Although easy to read and concerned with common experiences,this work is especially interesting to those who appreciate serious literature.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

cant wait to start this one! It takes place in some of my old stomping grounds!!

**So, lets start with the positives.
The title is wonderful.
The cover is beautiful.

I like the fact that we get to see little Joey grow to be a man, and follow along on the chaos that is all part of coming into your own.

But I wish the author would have spent more time developing the storylines. Dig a little deeper and help put me there, right beside the main character. I felt very disconnected from what was happening and found myself sort of skimming the novel, when I would much rather have been sucked in and unable to tear myself away.

[GUD Magazine · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard not to judge a book by its cover--and I think it's rather silly not to, to be honest. The production values of a book say a lot about what's going to be within. Of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't still take a peek inside, and give the words a chance. Especially with the small press, where the trappings of the business may not be in full bloom, but where the writing itself can still be honeyed treasure.

"Half-Past Nowhere" is one of those treasures, wrapped in a bundle of mixed messages that I will run through here quickly so that you are already desensitized to them by the time you find this book in your hands. The cover is compelling, but a touch generic, and the paper of it feels more weak than delicate. The finish has already started to rub off around the corners and the edges are well-dented--it was carried around a fair bit. Opening the book, I was taken aback to find it was double-spaced throughout, and a quick flip-through showed me, through thin pages, that the registration was reliably off. On the other hand, it does seem to have been offset printed (as opposed to digital), unless my eyes deceive me--a point in its favor.

But now that I've wound down my minor rant, which I presume most of you have skipped over, I would like to extol the book's virtues. "Half-Past Nowhere" has a simple yet poetic honesty to it that pulls you through seventeen years of Joey Fusaro's life by way of a series of eleven loosely-connected, but coherent, stories (or ten, depending on how you read "A Perfect Trifecta").

"Lucifer's Legions" paints a very believable and compelling innocence as Joey, a seven-year-old, is pushed into a relatively harmless dare by his ten-year-old brother Dominick and Dominick's friends. This is interwoven with a pertinent but also engrossing conversation between Joey and his Nonna, who is written with a thick accent that could easily have gone into caricature but which instead, I feel, underpinned a strong reality for the setting.

This is followed by two more winners: "Twelve Steps", where the three young brothers Fusaro stand strong against their father's drunken violence; and "Crescendo", where Joey, still a young boy, slowly asserts his independence through wandering into a part of town forbidden to him. In "Crescendo" he meets, if you'll forgive the pun, some of the most colorful characters of the book--jazz pianist Phineas Biggers and barkeep Miss Reba. They appear in another story later, and I feel they plumb Joey's depths of heart and soul the most. "Phineas Rising" threatened me with tears even the second time I read it--though I can be a sucker for such things.

Cavano's stories run the gamut from pathos to comedy, with loving and recurring portraits of nature--fishing in particular, but also people and out-of-the-way places--as well as a young man's weight in relationships and sex. A few of the pieces came off as weaker to me. I didn't buy Joey's dialog with Rachel in "Mayflies", for instance--and that story as a whole was perhaps just too mopey despite some beautiful imagery scattered throughout; "Mountain Men" felt a touch out of tune; and "Full Circle" wrapped things up, but didn't feel like a story in itself. But they were more than balanced by the power in pieces like the aforementioned "Phineas Rising", and "Currents", where Joey loses himself and is violently reborn in a river.

Cavano presents a compelling world, one of an older America just a few generations away, yet growing more and more distant as today's technology changes things faster and faster. Joey grows up, at turns romantic, at turns wicked; each section of his life is self-contained, but they all weave together into a coherent narrative.

For a somewhat thin volume, this really punches. The writing is crisp, the characters and world vivid, and a very full life is presented in its eleven chapters--childhood to adulthood, and then, per the eleventh chapter's title, it comes "Full Circle". I never doubted the characterizations and read through it in one sitting, sympathizing and empathizing with characters and situations.

And then I read it again.

[Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming collection of short stories, all featuring a boy (and a young man) named Joey. Considering the name, and that the fictional town of "Kingsport" is clearly a stand-in for Cavano's hometown of Kingston, one must believe that these stories are more autobiographical than not (though perhaps in some cases, such as the "A Perfect Trifecta", stories more in the way of wishful thinking than fact!).

Cavano skillfully moves us through the spectrum of emotions felt by a boy growing into a man: fear, lust, shame, remorse, pride, guilt, loss, grief, love, and pain. These stories, no matter their source in life or fiction, are clearly deeply felt by the author, and paint for us a picture in flashes of what life was like for Joey.

This is Cavano's first published work, and the hand of a beginner shows in the sometimes stilted and heavy-handed description, as if he desperately wants us to "get" Joey, and is afraid to simply describe the circumstances of his life, to merely tell a story and allow us to reach our own conclusions, to feel for Joey whatever the story invokes in us, rather than what the author wishes it to invoke.

As stories, these are a bit unsatisfying, as not being whole of themselves, but as a novel, the whole is also unsatisfying, as being too piecemeal and leaving too many gaps; we are not given enough of a picture of Joey to be able to fill in the blanks.

Nonetheless, I think this is a wonderful beginning, and I look forward to reading his other work. It is always delightful to find the nugget of promise in an author of whom I had not previously been aware; Joseph Cavano is one to watch for.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

So originally I gave this book 1 star. Then I re-read it and gave it 2 stars. A few of my book club members re-read it as well and their opinions improved. I'm thinking I need to read it a third time as it may be a case of the "Alice in Chains" syndrome I fall victim to in which wonderful things that all people enjoy are abhorrent to me until I force myself to read (or listen to in the case of Alice in Chains) them over and over and over and over until I reach the epiphany that others reach after one shot.

[Author · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joey, the main character, experiences many "rites of passage" from climbing a hill to different forms of death and many in between. Joseph Cavano captures these unique experiences thoroughly. His writing is compassionate. His detail is poetic. Half-Past Nowhere is provocative and awe inspiring. It took me back to high school and required reading such as Flannery O'Connor. Mr. Cavano's work is classic.

[Sheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Half-Past Nowhere is an excellent Book. This story follows the life a boy becoming a man, through childhood, teen, and adult memories. Jospeh Cavano's words blend beautifully, with descriptive imagination, and emotions. Half-Past Nowhere is a perfect coming of age story.

[Georgiann Hennelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story that tells the life of a boy as he passes from childhood to manhood from an abusive childhood to the joys of young love and finally self discovery.

[Chris Antenen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could give this book a five - if I were a man. Review later.