by Christina G. Waldman
6-12-26
I’ve recently read three books by local Buffalo women, or women with a connection to Buffalo, New York. All three are authors published by NFB Publishing in Buffalo. Two were memoirs and one was a novel. No one asked me to read these books. I learned about them from podcasts hosted by Steve Harper, interviews with Mark Pogodzkinski and NFB authors in an ongoing series through PBN podcasts, Business News Network.
Jennifer Liberatore’s memoir, You Wonderful Boy: A mother’s bond with her son through his severe OCD, addiction, and his death (2024) interested me especially because I had a dear friend who suffered terribly from OCD, Sam Benick. He passed away at age 70 on Oct. 18, 2019, from a heart attack. I had thought, in a way, it was a blessing Sam’s sufferings ended before the COVID years, because the COVID restrictions would have been so hard on him. For a person suffering from the mental torment of intrusive thoughts, it would be cruel to add to their stress burden unnecessarily. Each individual is unique, but I could see similarities between Zach and Sam. Both were highly intelligent, kind, caring people whose accomplishments were even more impressive when you knew their back story. There was one major difference: Sam didn’t suffer from addiction. Most of the time–that I knew him, at least–Sam’s medications were providing at least some measure of control over his OCD. But there was a time when they weren’t–when a medication had to be dropped because it was causing excruciating back pain–and the substituted drugs weren’t doing the job of controlling the OCD. It is so understandable to me that a person not getting any relief from mental torment would seek relief any way he/she/they could. The family has established a foundation, the Zachary Liberatore Foundation, https://zachliberatore.com/, to help other sufferers like Zach. Compassion, awareness, and change are needed in the way our society addresses mental illness. This was the second quite well-written book I have read by someone who had been a professional ballerina. The other was Margot Fonteyn’s autobiography. This book was an inspiration to me.
Previously, I wrote about Sam in a blogpost: “Remembering Samuel Lucas Benick,” 1-20-20, https://christinagwaldman.com/2020/01/20/remembering-samuel-lucas-benick/). There’s a picture of him here: https://www.rochestercremation.com/obituaries/samuel-benick.
The Erasure of Mikhail Yeyegov, a memoir by Katherine Luise Ross (2024), interested me because it concerned family genealogy, the effects of trauma on one generation felt in the next, and the solving of a mystery over time. The author was an artist (ceramic sculptor) and professor, now Emeritus, working at the Art Institute of Chicago when she was writing this book. We take our freedoms for granted in this country. We don’t ever want to see a return of what happened in Russia during the Stalin years. This was a hard book to put down. https://katherineross-artist.com/section/537265-Writing%20Projects.html
Virgin Snow (2023) is Moxie Gardiner’s debut novel about a girl, Cosi McCarthy (born of Sicilian-Irish parentage!), who is growing up Catholic on the West side of Buffalo. It begins in 1968 when Cosi is 13 years old. We watch her make mistakes and have some close calls, and hope her life choices turn out for the best. I tend to read more non-fiction than fiction, but this story drew me in. The characters were engaging. I confess, I really liked Big Ange, Cosi’s mother, a raw, tough, survivor. There was unexpected humor–sometimes dark–and a lot of character development. Moxie researched in local history to get her factual backdrop accurate. She has been a writer of speeches and magazine articles for the past 21-years. I see from her website that she has planned a sequel to Virgin Snow. That is good! https://moxiegardiner.com/