“Hemingway, Three Angels, and Me,” by Jerome Mark Antil to be Released This October
(PRWEB) July 05, 2016 -- “Children who lived through WWII – a war that took seventy million lives – grew up fast. We had to,” says Jerome Mark Antil, author of “Hemingway, Three Angels, and Me.” “My stories explore post-war effects on children in America growing up in its shadow.”
The novel follows the story of a young boy witnessing the reality of Jim Crow laws in the South for the first time. The protagonist then enlists his friends, family members, and neighbors to help Anna Kristina, one victim of that prejudice. The main character Jerry’s 1953 trip to the South at the beginning of the novel expands his world view, opens his mind to other cultures, and causes him to mature. At the end of the novel, he is still the same likable, honest, kind Jerry, but he is also more committed than ever to helping other people.
“The children, girls especially, growing up after the war were courageous because of it. These were the girls who bore witness to the valor of the 1940s. They learned what sacrifice really meant,” Antil says. “Even while in grade school many of them had to step up to the plate and fill adult roles at home or on the farm. The youth of the 1940s had to ‘cover’ for the missing adults who were away, fighting in a world at war – many dying.”
Publisher Little York Books recently asked living protagonists in a Post WWII (Pompey Hollow) novel series to select books from or about their youth – books which raise a standard and might collectively inspire young women of today the same good example in themes like valor, tolerance, courage, leadership, self-confidence, humor, family, overcoming obstacles, respect for mankind, common sense, passion, and a can-do spirit.
Top 10 books for girls who would be future presidents:
1. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
2. The Pompey Hollow Book Club – Jerome Mark Antil
3. The Story of the Trapp Family Singers – Maria Von Trapp
4. Anne of Green Gables – Lucy Maud Montgomery
5. African Queen – C.S. Forester
6. Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
7. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
8. Little Woman – Louisa May Alcott
9. Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
10. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
About the Author:
Jerome Mark Antil is the seventh child of a seventh son - of a seventh son. Born at sunrise it’s been told by Mary Holman Antil and Michael C. Antil Sr., that he was the first of eight siblings to stay awake all day and sleep through the night from the moment he was born.
“I remember the Pearl Harbor attack announced on our Zenith radio before I could walk. I heard Edward R. Murrow reporting the War from London…and the scratchy battle-weary ship-to-shore Morse code messages on radio while my diaper was being changed”.
Heartfelt fare of family and friendship - light-hearted nostalgia from the 1940s and 1950s are his favorite subjects. He revels at capturing in good detail what it was like being a kid living in a world at War and its long shadows. When the War ended, he grew up in Delphi Falls, which provided the setting for The Pompey Hollow Book Club and The Book of Charlie.
"My dad was a baker from the 1929 Great Depression through the post-War 1950s. As a young boy, I’d ride with him all throughout central and northern New York visiting grocers and U.S. Army bases; baseball parks and bread lines as he sold his bread, hot dog buns, pies and cakes. My Dad was ‘Big Mike’ and I loved listening to his timeless stories and tall tales - stopping at fishing holes along the way. All day rides with Big Mike - his Buick my Steamboat – his grand stories and an entire world at War my Mississippi.”
As an adult Jerry worked as a proof reader and printer’s liaison, he later wrote and produced industrial sales and training films. An accomplished writer for public relations and advertising agencies, he would become Chief Marketing Officer for several prominent U.S. companies.
Jerry’s favorite authors are: (John Steinbeck) “Steinbeck could peer through a peephole of a person’s soul.” (Ernest Hemingway) “Grandpa Hemingway could establish character in a single sentence.” (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) “His Sherlock would keep me as eager for the next clue and accompanying anecdote as for the crime’s solution.” (Mark Twain) “Samuel Langhorne Clements was an irreverent observer of human foibles. His stand up was thought provoking, deceptively caustic.”
Additional Resources
Jerry Antil, author of “The Pompey Hollow Book Club” series, stops in to talk about his newest book: “Hemingway, Three Angels, and Me.”
"The Pompey Hollow Book Club" series
Jerome Mark Antil, Little York Books, +1 2142154378, [email protected]
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