A roundup of local books

by Elizabeth Licata

ARTISTS is much too large for us to completely cover, but we’ve cast as broad a net as possible. Here are some titles that caught our attention.

By Adam Zyglis MacIntyre Purcell, 2021 This (mostly) lighthearted collection of cartoons from Buffalo News Pulitzer-Prize-winning artist Adam Zyglis has a hyperlocal theme. What makes Buffalo Buffalo? Who are we, the people who live here? What do we care about? How do we express it? Zyglis answers these questions in a series of drawings that are just as spot-on as the book’s concept. Zyglis has been looking for a way to escape from the polarizing conflicts that have dominated the subject matter of all political cartoonists for the past five years; as he says in his brief intro, this represents “a muchneeded break from politics and a return to my roots.” Buffalo born and bred, Zyglis unerringly pinpoints the attitudes, mannerisms, fears, points of pride, grim realities, and heedless joys that characterize the region. Not every cartoon will prompt a nod of agreement, but most will impel a nod of recognition— even if reluctant. Every drawing testifies to Zyglis’s unparalleled ability to create and manipulate visual metaphors. A watch with Buffalo hands illustrates the easy commute, a For Sale sign is also a snow gauge, medieval torture devices handily recall the agony of sports losses, and a snow-ignoring figure hangs from a lamppost singing about the team’s victories. Zyglis’s drawing style is more florid and detailed than many of his peers; this is also what makes the cartoons work as they do. He gives everything we need, but stops at the border of overplaying his hand.

The grim reality Zyglis includes— sparingly—focuses on the indisputable problems with poverty and racial divisions that can also define Buffalo. It’s clear that the artist intends to include as much truth as possible, but also with as light a touch as possible. He succeeds. Is it “Buffalo” to worry that Zyglis is too good to stay here? I hope it is and that we’ll be seeing more books just as wonderful as this as well as enjoying his cartoons in the paper for decades to come.

Local books continued

By Bruce Jackson BlazeVOX, 2021 People die, dogs die, trees die, but the stories remain. And Bruce Jackson has some great stories. Some are somber, even angry, but just as many are lighthearted to the point of comedy. The dead tree belongs to a neighbor, who clearly does not value it as Jackson does. The dog is Randolph Scott, one of several canines who assumed key roles in the lives of Jackson and his family.

A few of the narratives advance theories and ideas that are less about the departed than about the intellectual field he inhabited, as with “Ben Botkin: Listening,” which is as much about the development of folklore studies in America as it is about Botkin, who collected and archived folklore (poetry, songs, writing) for various national institutions and went on to write six seminal books on American folklore. Jackson’s remembrance is a fascinating discussion about how folklore should be approached and understood.

In other essays, Jackson recounts organizing a Pete Seeger concert for an auditorium of Texas convicts in 1966, his abortive run against Max McCarthy for US Congress in 1968, his decades of guesting on the John Otto show, and his friendships with such departed (some recently, some long gone) friends and colleagues as John Berryman, Alan Ginsburg, and William R. Kunstler. It should be clear by now that this is not so much a book of obituaries as it is a series of windows, offering views of intersections—between personalities, ideas, and moments in history.

By Mark Goldman Friends of the Buffalo Story, 2021 Activist, educator, developer, and writer Mark Goldman has embedded himself in the culture of Buffalo through his books and his work as an entrepreneur on Chippewa, in Allentown, and in Black Rock. He’s also been prominent in urging “lighter, quicker, cheaper” incremental development at Canalside and has promoted a vision of Buffalo’s future that respects its history, architecture, and diversity. Goldman’s previous books have been third person narratives, examining seminal moments in Buffalo’s history from 1900 to the present. City on the Lake focuses on the city’s postindustrial decline, the 1976 desegregation case, and other developments of the sixties, seventies, and eighties. City on the Edge takes a more expansive view of Buffalo throughout the twentieth century. In contrast, City of My Heart, as its title implies, is personal. It’s written in the first person and details Goldman’s efforts to implement positive change in a wide range of spheres, zeroing in on his experiences as the creator of the Calumet and associated venues on Chippewa and the Allentown Hardware Café on Allen, as well as other types of “place-making” endeavors, as he terms them. The book’s autobiographical approach takes deep dives into the Buffalo neighborhoods and people Goldman has cherished over the years, with a list of acknowledgements at the end of each chapter. It’s a series of remembrances and tributes with a strong thread of community spirit, optimism, and respect for hard work running throughout. All who love Buffalo as Goldman does should read this warm and joyful chronicle.

By Richard Sullivan Montgomery Ewing, 2021 Here’s the final book in a series of hefty historical novels chronicling Buffalo’s First Ward/the heyday of Irish Buffalo between 1850 to 1935. The three main characters are ruthless tycoon Fingy Connors, alderman John P. Sullivan, and detective James E. Sullivan, all of whom interact with other major players of the period, notably William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan. Volume Five, covering the years between 1920 and 1935, includes some eye-opening examples of the brutality of those who enforced Prohibition as well as money laundering, murder, strike-breaking, smuggling, and more. The chapters are often named after actual historic events; indeed, the book, like its predecessors, can barely be called a novel. Its fictional events play out against a firm background of solid history. This is a great gift for anyone fascinated by early Buffalo.

Local books continued

By Margaret Wooster SUNY Press (Excelsior), 2021 In this exploration of the importance of flowing water in the Great Lakes ecosystem, Wooster uses a relatively minor body of water, Buffalo Creek, as an example of how the traditional connectivity of water to land should work, how it has been undermined, and how it can be restored. Spree nature writer Gerry Rising calls Meander “an important book, a necessary book” and “a book to be read, absorbed, and acted upon.” A native of Buffalo, Wooster has a Ph.D. in English and a master’s degree in urban and environmental planning from the University of Buffalo. She has been a watershed planner on the Erie and Niagara County Planning Board, was a founder of the Friends of the Buffalo River (now Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper), and served for eight years as executive director of Great Lakes United.

By John Zach Archangel, 2020

By Don Purdy & Billy Klun Archway, 2021 Two other local titles also take up environmental themes, to varying degrees. John Zach’s saga of Stanley P. Spisiak, Buffalo’s first modern environmentalist, is diligently researched and well-timed as we assess the progress of restoring Buffalo’s waterways. Spisiak, a first generation Polish-American jeweler, was one of Buffalo’s most outspoken environmental advocates, from his early days as a young conservationist and naturalist to his midcentury activism on behalf of the Buffalo River, which caught the attention of President Lyndon Johnson in 1966, leading to Spisiak’s receiving the Water Conservationist of the Year award in Washington. Sadly, the river’s decline reached its apex in 1968, when it famously caught fire near the South Park Avenue lift bridge. Spisiak’s activism both prior to and after this event was greatly influential in ultimately getting this body of water on the road to health. This book is important for a true appreciation of the early struggles of environmental activists in the modern age.

A very different catastrophe is still being remediated fifteen years after it happened, but Thunder Snow of Buffalo covers much more than the tree destruction caused by 2006’s “October surprise.” An account by Don Purdy and Billy Klun gathers the experiences of a diverse array of Western New Yorkers as they lived through the emergency. Much of the narrative centers on the Buffalo Bills organization—Purdy was Director of Football Administration—but there are also first-person accounts from local meteorologists, news media, law enforcement, and medical staff. One section deals with the long-running ReTree effort to replace 55,000 downed trees. Fans of Bills history and trivia should be first in line for this book; the storm ultimately takes second place to One Bills Drive.

By Rich A. Schlesinger LLH Publishing, 2021 Its subtitle of A Practical Guide for Getting Through College Without Falling Through the Cracks reassures that this book is not a primer for salespeople; nonetheless, its lessons would likely be valuable in many other fields than education. Headings with names like Bullying, Transgender Rights, Fair Housing, Title IX, Financial Aid Advocacy and many others demonstrate that this nononsense guide is full of practical advice in areas where it is most needed. Basically, Schlesinger preaches the gospel of student self-advocacy, urging those on the path to higher education to find out their rights and insist that those rights be acknowledged. He also urges students to be informed financial consumers in order to lessen their postgraduation debt burdens. It’s a practical gift idea for prospective students and their parents. 4190 N. Buffalo Road, Orchard Park, NY 14127 716-662-1331

5841 Transit Rd, East Amherst, NY 14051 716-639-7231

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