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Buffalo Trace: A Threefold Vibration
A compelling hybridization of sex and critical theory. —Kirkus
What a remarkable and beautiful book this three brilliant writers each describe in these essays how, to borrow a phrase from Nietzsche, a person "becomes who one is." The book insists that love, self-becoming, and thinking cannot be separated, and, through a series of portraits and meditations, it shows how a largely forgotten corner of the world became a portal for these three to a world that could be known, inhabited, and acknowledged. This is one of the great books about education.
Charles Baxter , author of The Soul Thief and There’s Something I Want You to Do At a time when the university humanities are under siege, this heady, fascinating trio of novella-length autobiographical accounts of grad school literary studies is an absolute bracingly honest, self-aware, witty, probing, exquisitely written, lucid and humane. What's been missing in most current memoirs is the subjects' intellectual growth, alongside their traumas or sexual adventures. This book has it both the romance of learning and pedagogy merging with an education in eros. Its mixture of enchantment and rue feels just right. It should be read by every graduate student, every professor teaching in grad school, and everyone contemplating applying to grad school—plus everyone else looking for a lively, stimulating read.
Phillip Lopate , author of A Mother’s Tale and To Show and to Tell Buffalo Trace is a gloriously honest, richly triangulated, generous, shimmering portrait of a generation. In coming of age, coming out, and coming into various kinds of self-determination, its authors—and we—become accomplices in the ancient mysteries of love and theft, confusion and knowledge, doubt and the most bafflingly powerful of recognitions. This collective work is the stuff not just of shared lives but of shared consciousness, lovingly tracing “by what strange paths any of us finds the other.”
Elizabeth Willis , author of Meteoric Flowers and New And Selected Poems By following the tenderly intertwined intellectual and sexual awakenings of three friends, Buffalo A Threefold Vibration eroticizes academia. Their stories embrace the contradictions and rigors and limitations of academia, and yet this trilogy of essays can also be read as an ode to Buffalo, the deeply American town that provided cover and even salvation for these three writers. Who can resist the assertion that “Buffalo was itself a kind of Paris of the rust belt”? Ultimately, this is a love story, among friends, lovers, literature, and even Buffalo.
Lucy Jane Bledsoe , author of A Thin Bright Line and The Evolution of Love Smart, honest, and beautifully written, these three tales of grad school life in the 1980s could be called Love in the Time of Deconstruction. A hothouse world of brains, bodies, books, and doubt (in Buffalo, no less), it's all a bit mad, but in the exciting, necessary way of life in your twenties. Buffalo A Threefold Vibration is a strange, original, wonderful book.
Christopher Bram , author of Gods and Monsters and Mapping the Territory
What a remarkable and beautiful book this three brilliant writers each describe in these essays how, to borrow a phrase from Nietzsche, a person "becomes who one is." The book insists that love, self-becoming, and thinking cannot be separated, and, through a series of portraits and meditations, it shows how a largely forgotten corner of the world became a portal for these three to a world that could be known, inhabited, and acknowledged. This is one of the great books about education.
Charles Baxter , author of The Soul Thief and There’s Something I Want You to Do At a time when the university humanities are under siege, this heady, fascinating trio of novella-length autobiographical accounts of grad school literary studies is an absolute bracingly honest, self-aware, witty, probing, exquisitely written, lucid and humane. What's been missing in most current memoirs is the subjects' intellectual growth, alongside their traumas or sexual adventures. This book has it both the romance of learning and pedagogy merging with an education in eros. Its mixture of enchantment and rue feels just right. It should be read by every graduate student, every professor teaching in grad school, and everyone contemplating applying to grad school—plus everyone else looking for a lively, stimulating read.
Phillip Lopate , author of A Mother’s Tale and To Show and to Tell Buffalo Trace is a gloriously honest, richly triangulated, generous, shimmering portrait of a generation. In coming of age, coming out, and coming into various kinds of self-determination, its authors—and we—become accomplices in the ancient mysteries of love and theft, confusion and knowledge, doubt and the most bafflingly powerful of recognitions. This collective work is the stuff not just of shared lives but of shared consciousness, lovingly tracing “by what strange paths any of us finds the other.”
Elizabeth Willis , author of Meteoric Flowers and New And Selected Poems By following the tenderly intertwined intellectual and sexual awakenings of three friends, Buffalo A Threefold Vibration eroticizes academia. Their stories embrace the contradictions and rigors and limitations of academia, and yet this trilogy of essays can also be read as an ode to Buffalo, the deeply American town that provided cover and even salvation for these three writers. Who can resist the assertion that “Buffalo was itself a kind of Paris of the rust belt”? Ultimately, this is a love story, among friends, lovers, literature, and even Buffalo.
Lucy Jane Bledsoe , author of A Thin Bright Line and The Evolution of Love Smart, honest, and beautifully written, these three tales of grad school life in the 1980s could be called Love in the Time of Deconstruction. A hothouse world of brains, bodies, books, and doubt (in Buffalo, no less), it's all a bit mad, but in the exciting, necessary way of life in your twenties. Buffalo A Threefold Vibration is a strange, original, wonderful book.
Christopher Bram , author of Gods and Monsters and Mapping the Territory
264 pages, Hardcover
Published September 4, 2018
1 person is currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Mary Cappello
10 books20 followersMary Cappello is a writer and professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Rhode Island. She is the author of four books of literary nonfiction, and her essays and experimental prose have been published in The Georgia Review, Salmagundi and Cabinet Magazine. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Salon, The Huffington Post, in guest author blogs for Powell's Books, and on six separate occasions as Notable Essay of the Year in Best American Essays. A 2011 Guggenheim Fellow in Creative Arts/Nonfiction, she recently received a 2015 Berlin Prize from The American Academy in Berlin, a fellowship awarded to scholars, writers, composers, and artists who represent the highest standards of excellence in their fields.
Cappello is originally from Darby, Pennsylvania, a suburb outside Philadelphia. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. from State University of New York, Buffalo, and her B.A. from Dickinson College. Cappello has taught at the University of Rhode Island, as a Fulbright Lecturer at the Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow, Russia, and at the University of Rochester.
(from Wikipedia)
Cappello is originally from Darby, Pennsylvania, a suburb outside Philadelphia. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. from State University of New York, Buffalo, and her B.A. from Dickinson College. Cappello has taught at the University of Rhode Island, as a Fulbright Lecturer at the Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow, Russia, and at the University of Rochester.
(from Wikipedia)
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July 20, 2021Buffalo Trace is structured as a triptych memoir and each author (James Morrison, Mary Cappello, Jean Walton) writes about their own experience living in Buffalo, NY in the 80s, attending grad school in the English department (a department of legendary repute).
Each of the three pieces is singularly unique, and yet there are commonalities that create a thread that runs through the entire book.
The prose is often dazzling, there are many illuminating insights, and the willingness of each author to expose not only their academic experience but their own personal odyssey was so moving that I truly did not want the book to end.
It's full of snapshots of the academic world, the friendships and relationships among and between students and instructors. It provides a glimpse into what it means for literature to be a way of life, what it feels like to be in love, what it feels like to be out of love. Buffalo Trace shows us how a place and a time can shape you as a person.
Each of the three pieces is singularly unique, and yet there are commonalities that create a thread that runs through the entire book.
The prose is often dazzling, there are many illuminating insights, and the willingness of each author to expose not only their academic experience but their own personal odyssey was so moving that I truly did not want the book to end.
It's full of snapshots of the academic world, the friendships and relationships among and between students and instructors. It provides a glimpse into what it means for literature to be a way of life, what it feels like to be in love, what it feels like to be out of love. Buffalo Trace shows us how a place and a time can shape you as a person.
March 1, 2025
"Buffalo Trace" consists of three autobiographical essays by former SUNY Buffalo English Graduates Marry Cappello Jean Walton, and James Morrison. As a collection, these three self-portraits explore the authors' shared experiences navigating literary studies at UB while reflecting on their personal growth, each coming into various types of self-determination.
For me, this book was just as much fun as it was informative. Each essay in itself makes for a lively and stimulating read. The authors explore themes of love, early adulthood, Sexuality, and academic identity. Each exploration stuck with me personally in addition to providing me with new perspectives in my research. Their accounts paired with their writing style complement what I know about the artistic ethos in Buffalo's musical and visual arts scenes, allowing me to connect dots and explore new questions regarding the influence of literary studies.
All in all, I just love the way they all write. This is a great read for anyone interested in connecting the dots between one's personal and educational journeys. I'd recommend it to anyone!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews