Winter Quarter for Bees
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About the Book
The novel opens in the village of Stebnik which translates to Winter Quarter for Bees and proceeds to Minneapolis, the San Francisco Bay Area and ends back in the Slovakia village in the Carpathian Mountains. Andrij, the grandfather, Dankus, the son, and Danko, the grandson all have magical powers.
Andrij, rejected by superstitious village folk, returns to his native village in the form of his grandson, Danko, only to be reborn. The blend of the magical with the ordinary, along with the suspension of logic and time, moves the novel along. Over 30 illustrations, all done by the author, give a pictorial aspect to the story. The hero's journey is circular and like all good journeys ends up back home where all the answers are, even if the answers turn out to be new questions.
The author, in his search for his Carpatho-Rusin roots, presents memorable characters in both the old world of Czechoslovakia and the new world of Berkeley and San Francisco.
About the Author
I was born in Minneapolis in 1933, a depression child who asked many questions. This book tries to answer some of the questions of a family whose roots were in Eastern Europe. My family moved to Vallejo, California just before World War II. A middle class childhood in California posed few new questions, but the University of California at Berkeley opened my search for art and literature. That search lasts up to this day. Readings in theoretical science and history provided few answers. I earned a Master’s Degree in Art at Berkeley and went on to teach English and continue my art. Perhaps the answers I sought were in Minneapolis or in the Carpathian Mountains in the village of my Rusin grandmother. This book is about Danko, his father, and his grandfather, all of whom ask questions in a different way. A search for answers is always cyclical and must start at the roots.. The human imagination is a magic boat that transports pilgrims back to their beginnings. If the trip is successful the seeker is reborn into his own life and time.