***SPOILER ALERT***
The following are my thoughts in response to having read Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. If you have designs to read this book, while I appreciate you frequenting my blog, please save for a later date.
Calamity. Utter and total heartbreak. Those are my feelings today, as I’ve closed the book on Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. I don’t know how I’ll ever open another book. In the week since I first opened this beautiful, hopeful, inspiring and yet altogether heart-wrenching novel, I’ve cheered for Mimo and Uncle Albert, scorned General Leyers, revered Father Re and Cardinal Schuster and fallen in love with Pino and Anna. The kind of love where your hope resides in a greater future for the love you posses within yourself and for others. The kind of love only found in Eden’s paradise, before we cast ourselves into shadow. I don’t know that I’ve ever cursed at a book out loud before. I probably only did so because I saw it coming, and was powerless to stop it.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky is set in WWII Milan, leading us through the winding trials of Pino Lella. Pino finds himself in one harrowing predicament after another. Shortly after the bombing of Milan began, Pino’s parents scuttle him to Casa Alpina, where he’d spent much of his youth skiing and studying under the careful tutelage of Father Re, the remote school’s headmaster and priest. Pino soon discovers Father Re has other designs for Pino; leading one expedition after the next over a chain of Italian Alpine Mountains with Jews seeking refuge in Switzerland has his repetitious mission. Pino encounters thieves, doubt and avalanches along the way. His faith is tested but his outlook on life remains untainted, ever-desirous of finding love.
Prior to turning 18, Pino is jettisoned back to Milan under the bequest of his father, that he might avoid the draft and instead enlist in the German Army under a division that would keep him out of harm’s way. After a near-death incident shortly into his career, an injury places Pino on leave. Upon returning home he is yet to even set foot in his home before he encounters General Hans Leyers, the chief engineer in Hitler’s Nazi Regime in Italy. Having learned to maintain and operate vehicles as a hobby while at Casa Alpina, it is his deft technical skill that earns him the new position as driver for the General.
On Pino’s first day as driver, he knocks on the door of the General’s apartment and is greeted by the maid, a beautiful woman named Anna to whom we are introduced earlier in the story. The night of the first bombardment, Pino has scheduled a date with Anna to see a movie. She stands him up, avoiding, unbeknownst to her, a bomb hurtling through the roof of the theater. Their subsequent near daily interaction quickly leads Anna to reciprocate feelings for Pino, who is now operating as both the General’s driver and a spy for the resistance in Italy. Pino’s love for music abounds as Sullivan deftly conflates Pino’s passion for Anna, and for music, into one solitary tone. The two fall in love despite the war-ravaged surroundings and become engaged just before the German retreat. The love scene depicted in the story was written in such a way that anyone looking for clues as to whether or not their days would entail each other for the rest of their loves quickly becomes aware that Anna will not survive the war.
As much as I knew this to be true, still there was hope. Perhaps the words would rearrange themselves in the coming pages and the tragedy about to ensue I would be spared of. Fully invested in their world, their happiness, their continued existence, I trudged forward. Sure enough, a few calamitous decisions on Pino’s behalf coupled with the ill-timed retreat of the Germans and the vendetta killings required by the Partisans set the stage for Anna’s capture, due to her association with General Leyers’ mistress. A public gathering’s boisterous atmosphere attracts Pino’s attention. The strapping young man works his way to the front of the mob as an executioner leads out “collaborators” of the Nazi party. Anna among them. Before he can explain the mistake, the executioners try the traitors and kill them by firing squad. Pino has a front row seat to the barbarous atrocities, his heart breaking mine.
I can think of only one other such case where I felt so abandoned by the death of a literary love interest: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. All of this leads me to feel powerless and forlorn, with a burning resolution to evade Italian-set World War II tragic novels.
I am glad I encountered Pino’s story, it was a world I relished having a window. Pino is a hero for so many of his actions. Much like much war literature, Pino’s humanity befalls his passion and love. Pino’s misfortune reinforces my good fortune. I am grateful to have never known war. I am fortunate to have never been separated by my wife. Blessed to have never feared what might become of me, my wife or my children. But yet still, here I am, heart-broken over the evil that stole Anna from this world, even if I’d never known her. To have come all that way in such a perilous time and die at the hands of your misunderstanding countrymen is what makes Beneath a Scarlet Sky so difficult a pill to swallow.
Yours in the Passionate Pursuit of Happiness – Con Smania
Will O’Connor
Finally, a historic renovation of an old automotive service building, along a main artery into the city, to become the show-piece of Midas Tire and Auto. There is tremendous growth opportunity for Will in this company, so we’re all excited to see where that goes. Additionally, Will has spent most of his down time collecting thoughts and stories to begin writing a book. Here’s to hoping 2018 allows a bit more time to delve deeper into that passion.
Carolyn has had an amazing year, as well all knew she would. Balancing work, daycare routes, taking care of two children and one large man-child, while also bringing another child into the world. Professionally, Carolyn hit all of her annual goals prior to taking maternity leave. An achievement all of us are extremely proud of, her ability to excel as a top agent for her company while still being the loving and caring momma bear of the house is not something most people can do. Carolyn has developed some great friendships with some women in the area and enjoys spending time with them at a book club, among other activities, while giving Will the occasional opportunity to wrangle the kids from the bath-tub to bed while hopefully still finding the tooth brush and pajamas. In all, its been a banner year for her.
She’s immensely attentive to Eve and has been a great helper to Carolyn when she isn’t busy picking out her own outfits, learning to ride a bike or educating all of us about the most recent thing she’s learned at school. Quinn has stunned us this year in a variety of ways, most notably her development at school. While there, she has grown by a factor of ten. She loves her teachers so much that she wants to be one. She loves what she’s learned so much that she takes great measures to teach each of us. Her role as big sister suits her perfectly, and the coming of the next school year will see her in Kindegarten. It is truly amazing how fast time flies. Will is already mapping out the bus route, to ensure his baby girl gets safely to school for at least the first few months.
I had made reservations at the historical landmark restaurant. Located in the basement of an old brick building, just north of the Inner Harbor, Tio Pepe’s is a famed Italian restaurant. A label it has earned. The Paella is a masterpiece. The ambiance of soft, dimmed lights – crisp, white linen and low, ebbing music allows for each patron to experience intimacy of food and conversation exactly as a five-star feature would define it.
Recently I’ve had cause to examine the nature of the choices in my life. Whether or not I’d do this differently or that the same. So many landmarks to peruse as the timeline gets longer. So many I’d do differently. Such is the nature of humanity. This one I’d never change for all the gold in Fort Knox. It was the beginning of our journey in permanence. Three years and a bit we’d dated at the time of our engagement. Six years since. It is becoming hard to reconcile that our life together, nearly doubled that of our time before our engagement, has yielded so many blessings.
Thursday: We set out from Midlothian, Virginia to Manassas, Virginia just after lunch. A two-hour jaunt north and west, we settled on the urban setting of my wife’s aunt’s house. Having described that here before, this year’s iteration can only be described as meeting its billing. There were 40 people in attendance for the first time since I’ve been going (my 10th year). Of these 40, 10 were 7 years of age or younger. In the society we live in, where having children is often put on hold to achieve more individual accomplishments, it is a feat in-and-of-itself to be a part of a family so devoted to its proliferation. My two toddlers were enraptured by their older cousins. They played “lava and forest”, blocks, trains, zoo and countless other games I didn’t even come into contact with for the fact that they were so seemingly independent. My wife and I got the distinct pleasure, which before this year was but a memory, of having conversations last more than three minutes at a time. We had oysters and appetizers of all shapes and sizes. Gathered with some cousins we hadn’t seen in years. We got a chance to take a picture together! Of all the holiday photos we have of family, we never seem to be on the same side of the room. In all, an amazing day where we were blessed to be around some of those for whom we have so much love.
Friday: Having driven up to Maryland to my in-laws’ after the featured Thanksgiving festivities, we ventured down to Old Ellicott City, a place both my wife and myself have so many fond memories. Our first kiss, first admission of love, wedding photos and time spent with great friends all reside here. We took our children, along with my mother and father-in-law, two sisters-in-law and one of their boyfriend’s to the B&O Railroad Museum. After spending time immersed in model train gardens, former B&O rail cars and cabooses and several sightings of Thomas, we did a bit of browsing in the many stores along Main Street. My son, having been a model citizen in a very difficult place: an antique shop, earned himself an old fire engine. The lights and sirens even work (when I allow the batteries to be engaged)! We had lunch together before the men took the children back home, so the ladies could shop. After putting the kids down for a nap, we treated ourselves to football and basketball on television. I’m the only husband to my father-in-law’s three daughters, so having Theresa’s boyfriend, Mark, there was fun to expand the group with. Friday night featured the boys’ bonfire. My two brothers-in-law, two of their cousins, myself and a few other friends make up a group of guys who I fondly share many of my life’s accomplishments. Theirs is the brotherhood I am most invested in. It was a fantastic night. We lit stuff on fire, kept ourselves warm, caught up and told lies about all manner of topics for the better part of four hours. It was everything I had hoped for.
Saturday: On the road again, we found ourselves bound for Lake Anna, Virginia. My parent’s place and the location of our second Thanksgiving Feast. This year, my brother and sister held their own feast in Charlotte, North Carolina. They were sorely missed, but we did not let it alter our dedication to fun and being together. My children love to fish. Their version of fishing is rigging a worm to a hook, dropping the line straight down and waiting for the small bass and rainbow trout to engorge themselves. We have a small aquarium we fill with water, and by the end of each venture, the aquarium is to capacity. They all go back in, with sore mouths and the inability to resist the worm the next day. I often wonder how many times each of them has been caught. My children are in their element, delighting in each catch, demanding by the urgency of their voice that each fish be carefully examined by however many adults happen to be down on the dock in supervision. It is an amazing time.
Project Edison Experiments 