MIANUS VILLAGE IS a vivid, entertaining collection of 36 free verse poems that read and sound more like short, short stories than abstract modern poetry. It tells the story of a blue-collar boy growing up in the rough and tumble atmosphere of a Veterans’ housing project in the years following World War II. Set on the banks of Riverside, Connecticut’s Mianus Village, it is reminiscent of the bittersweet, bygone days of our youth and simpler, safer times for our country.
This audiobook will be especially appreciated by Baby Boomers whose Greatest Generation parents once saved the world from tyranny and genocide. Author David Huddle describes the book as a celebration of "American innocence, decency, humor, and family life” while simultaneously mourning "their loss."
Says author Peter Shea: "MIANUS VILLAGE is going to sit you down in the easy chair of your mind. With metric simplicity and an uncanny choice of evocative words, Scully will take you to Mianus Village – a real place for sure, and the setting for many autobiographical tales, but also a place that is emblematic of the commonalities within all of us.
"Following a roughly progressive chronology, the work starts with a tale of a great-grandfather with a “brogue, thick as spud stew,” and ends with the death of his mother. Along the way, we meet some of the many characters that peopled his early life: Daddy, who fought “up the boot of Italy,” Gunner, the natural born killer; Dante, who loses a good portion of a digit to Jack’s Bowie knife; the crazy old fisherman Ike, and Eva Ruth, his secret love.”
Simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking, MIANUS VILLAGE will slow down time’s winged flight in your life and make you a child again—every time you listen to it.