This trip/month we review two books by Louis Rosati: “Men of Steel” and “The Boy in Abruzzo”.
Today we are reviewing two books by Louis Rosati; one fiction, the other non-fiction.
I first found the novel, “The Boy in Abruzzo” in the PHX airport on our trip to Bakersfield to buy Westchester Gardens, a 36 unit assisted living facility. I read it on the way, and back, and it is great.
Based on that experience, I bought Rosati’s non-fiction book, “Men of Steel”. It’s part history, part photodocumentary (by his son Michael), part chemistry, part analysis of the steel business in the United States, but mostly a loving reminiscence of the Simonds Specialty Saw and Steel company in the 1950’s in upstate New York, where he and his father, grandfather and friends worked.
He’s an MD, a pathologist, living in Mesa, the next town over from us. Besides a full career as a pathologist, he is also the author of one other book “My Winning Season” about growing up and playing baseball as a boy.
- “The Boy in Abruzzo: A Novel of WW II Italy” (276 pages, paperback, 2022) by Louis Rosati: I bought this novel on the airport on the way to Bakersfield to complete our purchase of a 36 bed assisted living facility. It was good enough to buy his nonfiction book “Men of Steel” below. The Amazon description is: “Motivated by severe food-rationing imposed on his Italian village in the rugged Abruzzo region, a fifteen-year-old boy hikes to a nearby town where a family takes him in. He soon discovers the family, disillusioned by the Fascist government, is also sheltering two fugitive British Army soldiers who have escaped a nearby prisoner-of war camp. Francesco takes on the challenge to reunite the soldiers with the British Eighth Army advancing north along the Adriatic, risking discovery in dangerous encounters with German soldiers. On his journey, boy becomes transformed by the brutality of war, the plight of residents and refugees and an unexpected personal tragedy; yet he is rescued by the renewal of a friendship and his resilience of sprit.”
Francesco is 15 years old in 1943 in the Abruzzo region of Italy, central, east. The Germans are occupying Italy after the Italian collapse and he has to tread lightly because of his defiant attitude. They in just in German occupied territory, but the English 8th army is nearby, coming up the coast, pressing the Germans on one side of Italy, while the Americans press to the west. This fictional story is part coming of age, part thriller (rescuing POWs) and (SPOILER ALERT) ends up as a ‘hunting Nazi criminals’ story 10 years later.
CRITICISM: it would have been better off as two books; the coming of age, rescuing the POWs, then his reaction to these events, which is not really told in this book. The follow-on book would be set 10 years later in Canada with one of the POWs as the protagonist, finding the guilty Nazi officer, and bringing him to justice with Francesco playing the key, identifying role.
You can see our notes including the Venn diagram here:
And apparently, I also reviewed this book in November 2022:
- “Men of Steel” (298 pages, paperback, 2018) by Louis Rosati: I bought this nonfiction book by Louis Rosati after buying his fiction book above in the airport on the way to Bakersfield to complete our purchase of an 36 bed assisted living facility. The Amazon description is: “Men of Steel is an engaging journey through an abandoned steel mill. It interweaves memoir, interviews with retired steelworkers and the history of steel through the mill’s rise and demise in a narrative and photographic tapestry. The origin of Simonds Saw and Steel, an early 20th century specialty alloy steel producer on the banks of the Erie Canal in Western New York is traced through successive owners to modern times through the voices of men involved in the work of manual steel making, the labor movement, social issues of race and gender, and the human and environmental costs of a secret contract tor radioactive steel. The ultimate bankruptcy of the mill is examined in the context of the root causes of the steel industry’s decline that left the steelworker as bereft and abandoned as the property where they worked, one of the nation’s industrial tombstones–where time has stopped and layered up, and where things left behind blend with the action of nature reclaiming the site.”
You can read more about Louis Rosati at his website “Louis A Rosati”:
