Hometowns often hold a special place in our hearts. For Hancock author Paul Hertneky, that place was Ambridge, Pennsylvania, a steel town near Pittsburgh.
“Rust Belt Boy: Stories of an American Childhood,” is a collection of stories, essays really, that Hertneky has worked on over the past 10 years (when you see him next, ask him about the woodshed and the broken wrist). But each can stand on its own. Combined, they tell an even larger tale – one of boom and bust, of coming of age and decline.
Is it a memoir? It is, says Hertneky, but a little bit more.
“It’s a patchwork of stories, and there’s a historical aspect to it,” he says.
The book is filled with stories of large immigrant families during the 1960s, their kitchens bursting with love and food. (And Hertneky, in one essay, tells of the love and safety he would feel sitting under the dining table as the grownups milled about.)
They are stories about growth, death and rebirth, from his Catholic upbringing to adventures in Boston and beyond.
But mostly, and most simply, the stories are about love.
“Love is everything and [as a child] it was coming at me from all angles,” he says. “When I was writing this, I was pinpointing moments that most clearly illustrated the love that came in all kinds of different kinds of forms.”
“Love made the place kind of magical for me. It still makes life kind of magical for me.”
Hertneky will talk about his book and sign copies tonight at 6 at The Keene Public Library, 60 Winter St., Keene, and on Saturday, at 11 a.m. at the Toadstool in Peterborough.