Book Title:
Up from Adams Street (a memoir) by Larry Crane
Category: Adult Non-Fiction (18 +), 229 pages
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Maine Authors Publishing
Release date: July 2019
Content Rating: PG-13.
Mild mature content. No bad language.
Book Description:
Larry Crane brings the sensibility of the post-World War II generation and a
family of modest means to his fresh new novelesque memoir, Up From Adams
Street. Born at home, surrounded by a neighborhood of immigrant families
that burst out of the confines of Chicago to buy a lot carved out of the
corn fields astride the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy rail line. As the
confessed family favorite, he had a lot of expectations heaped on his
shoulders, along with a sense that he was destined to fulfill that destiny.
He realizes that participating in sports is a potential entrée into worlds
that seem beyond his little world. Plus, he loves the games. He plays
baseball, football and basketball. He caddies at golf courses. As he grows
physically, he senses the need to expand mentally and philosophically too. A
scholarship helps, then a surprise appointment to West Point follows. At the
military academy, he bends to discipline, survives mandatory boxing, battles
mighty Notre Dame in basketball, pitches against the legendary Yankees,
conquers Mechanics of Fluids, and Calculus, discovers F. Scott Fitzgerald,
befriends Red Reeder, falls in and out of love, turns 23, and becomes a
man.
How do you develop your plot and characters? The plot and characters
work hand in glove. I like to start out the writing job working from a
situation that is out of balance and demands concrete action from the protagonist(s)
to set right again. But the characters determine what the action will be.
Sometimes they get it wrong and need to re-set. Whatever they come up with
defines them as people, but also drives the story forward with cause and effect
to another situation.
Do you have a favorite character that you have written? If
so, who? And what makes them so special. Maggie Christopher, the wife and
alter-ego of the protagonist, Lou, in my thriller novel, A Bridge to
Treachery, is a favorite. She softens the sometimes very sharp edges of the
flinty Lou. She’s not afraid to question his logic and to call him out on his
lies. She is smart and tough, and she never wavers in her love for him. She
plays a major part in climactic action of the novel’s concluding chapters.
Have any of your books been made into audiobooks? If so, what
are the challenges in producing an audio book? Both of my novels, Missing
Girls, and A Bridge to Treachery, are available as audio books. The
selection of the narrator was a major challenge in producing them. I wanted a
narrator who could handle the very difficult job of transitioning to the voices
of the various characters convincingly. It was important also that the narrator
truly “get” the tone of the narrative, and the emotional impact of the story,
and conveys that to the listener.
Favorite book/story you have read as an adult? One of my favorites is
Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. It might be because the book is written
in the first person and is somewhat autobiographical. I’ve gotten more
interested in it lately because as I was putting my memoir Up From Adams
Street together, The Sun Also Rises fits the model of what a memoir
is according to the experts, and even if it is not truly a memoir, it functions
a lot as one. So, novelistic techniques such as vivid descriptive scenes and
dialogue abound in my memoir. When you add in the thematic elements that in
Hemingway translate into the definition of the Lost Generation, the book is
worthy of a lot of study.
Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, are there any you’d
recommend? Yes, I listen to audio books on long drives. Long after I’ve
listened to them, I can actually picture where I was in my travels when I did
so. I can offer five really good ones: Tourist Season, by Carl Hiassen;
Killing Mr. Watson, by Peter Matthiessen; The Egyptologist, by Arthur
Phillips; Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, by John Berendt; The
Descendants, by Kaui Hart Hemmings.
Share something your readers wouldn’t know about you. For a dozen or more
years during the 70s and 80s I devoted most of my free time to orienteering.
It’s a sport that combines hiking/running with map and compass skills and
appeals to families looking for a new outdoor activity, as well as to cross
country runners who appreciate adding a mental dimension to the physical
demands of their sport. Orienteering in the US was in its infancy in the early
70s. I read a book about the sport and traveled to Virginia to attend the first
meeting of the United States Orienteering Federation, becoming a charter
member. Over the years, I built up a club of 300 members in northern New Jersey
called Ramapo Orienteering, and conducted top-flight “meets” that drew
competitors from all over the east coast and Canada.
Meet the Author:
Larry Crane spent the 1960s in a military setting, first at school at
West Point, and as a lieutenant in Germany. He was an advisor to a
Vietnamese ranger battalion in the Central Highlands. He took on a
civilian career in brokerage and banking, retiring early to concentrate on
writing, producing several full length plays most notable of which is
Baghdad on the Wabash. Published fiction includes a thriller,A Bridge to
Treachery, a mystery novel Missing Girls: In Truth Is Justice, and an
anthology of short plays and stories, Baghdad on the Wabash and Other
Plays and Stories. He lives with his wife Jan in splendid isolation on
Southport Island, Maine.
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Please try not to spam posts with the same comments over and over again. Authors like seeing thoughtful comments about their books, not the same old, "I like the cover" or "sounds good" comments. While that is nice, putting some real thought and effort in is appreciated. Thank you.