My new book, Tongue of War, has been published

Tony Barnstone · #1 11-17-2009, 02:17 AM

Hey Friends,

I'm happy to say that my new book of poems, Tongue of War: From Pearl Harbor to Nagasaki, a WWII book based upon 14 years of research and original interviews with veterans and their families, has hit print with BKMK Press. The book is written largely in sonnets, though other forms come in.

Thanks!

Tony
-----------

Order from your local small literary bookstore, or click the link below for Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Tongue-War-Pea.../dp/1886157715

Product Description:
This book, which won the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry, selected by B. H. Fairchild, is inspired by historical situations and accounts letters, oral histories, news reports, etc., of individuals from both sides of the Pacific theater of World War II, including the home fronts. Barnstone writes that he intends Tongue of War as ''a love letter to the World War II generation.'' But he explains, ''I see the sequence as a history in verse in which I allow the readers to inhabit multiple and warring perspectives on the War in the Pacific, including the Pearl Harbor attack, Hiroshima, and the conflict in between.'' Pulitzer-prize-winning writer Robert Olen Butler writes, ''Barnstone has revealed humankind's capacity both for evil and for redemption with a power that few writers have ever achieved.''

Janice D. Soderling · #2 11-17-2009, 02:22 AM

With a product description like that, it should sell like hot flapjacks on a cold day. Most impressive.

Kevin Greene · #3 11-17-2009, 06:55 AM

Tony,

I have the book on order. The folks at the local independent bookstore couldn't find the book at first, so I gave them the ISBN that I found on Amazon.com. (That was odd.) Can't wait to see your collection!

Kevin

Rick Mullin · #4 11-17-2009, 08:19 AM

Seems really interesting. Congrats.

W.F. Lantry · #5 11-17-2009, 09:02 AM

Very exciting, Tony! Congrats!

Thanks,

Bill

Tony Barnstone · #6 11-18-2009, 04:14 AM

Thanks, folks. It's been a long, long journey with this book. It all started with a very strange dinner I had with Paul Tibbets, the guy who dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima, 14 years ago.

Be well!

T

David Rosenthal · #7 11-18-2009, 02:32 PM

Wow, what a project. Congratulations, Tony, it must feel great to finally have it out.

David R.

Janet Kenny · #8 11-18-2009, 02:47 PM

Tony, that is quite an achievement. Congratulations.

(Isn't there a typo in the name "Ciardi"?)

I'm sure you spoke for the involuntary victims as well as the heroes.

Tony Barnstone · #9 11-19-2009, 12:59 AM

Hi Janet,

Ah, yes! The dangers of cutting and pasting from Amazon. Thanks for catching that. And yes, the project is meant to be a panoptic view of the war, spoken from different points of views, different moral positions, so the reader can choose his or her own moral path when thinking about the ethics of cannibalism on the battlefied, city destruction via napalm and atom bomb, torture, live medical experiments, and so on. Speaking for victims was the easy part. The harder bit was to read enough about the actions of war criminals to be able to understand their personal moral or immoral stances, the psychological, cultural and physical pressures they were under, and find empathy for them so they didn't become cartoon monsters, but rather human beings under extraordinary pressure.

Best, TB

Janet Kenny · #10 11-19-2009, 03:27 PM

Tony,
Now I really would like to read your book. I was afraid it was just trumpets and drums. It sounds really fascinating. What a psychological adventure!

Janet