The Face of War, A Soldier’s Lament
What is the meaning of war? Anthony Guidone searches for answers in his book, The Face of War, A Soldier’s Lament.
War has impacted the way Guidone defines it. He uses the art of photography juxtaposed, literally, under his own musings, his own poetry and a few quotes by famous people to pay homage to fellow soldiers. Each turning of the page leads to a different story, and each photo with its own verse will evoke a different reaction from the reader.
Guidone puts his artistic talent to good use. His verses often sit astride the photographs like a child’s open-eyed assessment, poignant and poetic. There are multiple messages, not just those of pain, death, suffering and despair–all of which are negative (and expected) towards war. In this vein one might recall Salvador Dali’s work, similarly titled, “The Face of War,” which depicts only one tone and nothing more. Dali’s decaying skull only sees and speaks death.
Guidone, on the other hand, invites the reader to consider war in a less negative fashion and to quietly reflect on war’s aftermath using such images as:
- A white dove floating.
- A woman’s red jacket mirrored in the reflected blackness of the Vietnam Memorial Wall as she searches for a name.
- A face turned upward pleading for the end of sorrow.
- Little white slabs sticking out of the earth– much like popsicle sticks put there by a child’s hand.
- On the blank page opposite, simple words mesmerize: “You were more than a name to me.”
Many of the most poignant and revealing moments are Guidone’s photography, visual moments that reveal the shape of a world, a point of view, an argument about life and war. Guidone’s accompanying poetry then remains somewhat at the margins, like an echo through a mountain valley, sonorous and fleeting.
To place an order for The Face of War, A Soldier’s Lament, send an email to soldierslament@gmail.com. Include your name, address, and telephone number.
The Face of War, a Soldier’s Lament, written by Anthony Guidone. Hard cover. Self published, 2014. ISBN #978-o-615-98456*8
Flashes of War
Flashes of War is a terrifically well-paced, well-told collection of short fictional vignettes about the toll war takes on soldiers and civilians.
Two boys secretly dream of being soccer stars at a Kabul stadium where they previously witnessed public torture, a ghost cannot let go of his surviving friend in arms, a returning U.S. soldier struggles with the realities of life outside the military, a little sister is determined to join her big brother on the battlefield, a jihadist is also a pragmatist. These characters and more grace this volume of short stories that capture personal moments of fear, introspection, confusion, and valor in one collection spanning nations and perspectives.
Author Katey Schultz grew up in Portland, Oregon, and is most recently from Celo, NC. She is a graduate of the Pacific University MFA in Writing Program and recipient of the Linda Flowers Literary Award from the North Carolina Humanities Council. She lives in a 1970 Airstream trailer bordering the Pisgah National Forest. Flashes of War is her first book. Schultz published an earlier chapbook, Lost Crossings: A Contemplative Look at Western North Carolina’s Historic Swinging Footbridges.
Doug Stanton, author of New York Times bestsellers Horse Soldiers and In Harm’s Way says, “Katey Schultz has written an amazing book. What emerges from these stories is a chorus of voices – American, Afghan, Iraqi – and this chorus enlarged my sense of a war that has defined an American decade. Flashes of War is the work of a bold, ambitious, and brilliant young author who is writing stories few others in American fiction have really yet tackled.”
Flashes of War, written by local author Katey Schultz. Paperback, 200 pages, published May 2013. ISBN #1934074853.
Swords in Their Hands
Hendersonville author Dave Richards was named a finalist in the “General History” category of the 2014 USA Best Book Awards by USA Book News for his first book, Swords in Their Hands: George Washington and the Newburgh Conspiracy.
Published by Pisgah Press, Dave Richards’s 386-page book tells the story of an event that can best be described as the closest thing to a military coup that America has ever experienced.
As the Revolution nears success, George Washington’s officers in the Hudson Highlands, unpaid for months or even years, fear that they will never get their back pay and postwar pensions. In Philadelphia, one political faction wants Congress to have real taxation authority so it can obtain the revenue needed to pay the army; another insists that only the states should retain the power of the purse.
Swords in Their Hands: George Washington and the Newburgh Conspiracy, written by Dave Richards. Pisgah Press, 2014. Paperback, 400 pages. ISBN #0985387580