In Saints and Poets, Maybe, author Peter W. Yaremko leads the way to what Druids called the thin places. This is where-if attention is paid-we hear the beating heart of things, see the oak within the acorn. Yaremko takes us with him to wander these thin places as did Thornton Wilder’s saints and poets who, maybe, realize life while they live it. The hundred essays in this collection demonstrate writing that runs deep. The author, seasoned in the city rooms of metropolitan newspapers and the corridors of global corporations, is not afraid to go where the story takes him, such as the death of a life partner or betrayal by a trusted friend. But this is no collection of somber essays. Here you will find writing that fuels your passion to live like you mean it. The tone throughout has a light touch whose pointed satire stretches to include the farcical quality of otherworldly stuff like candy corn and supermarket muffins. The author’s witty irreverence is evidenced in essays like A Few of My Most-Hated Things and The Assault on Architecture. Nor is any subject off-limits. Equal-opportunity victims include Victoria’s Secret bras, iPhone’s Siri, and the New York Yankees’ baseball uniforms. For starters. The stories in this collection summon characters who range from the ninety-seven-year-old Queen of the Fairies to supercilious captains of blue-chip companies. And Yaremko doesn’t hesitate to enlist expert witnesses as diverse as Aristotle and Aquinas, Orson Welles and Andy Warhol. The book’s action is a moveable feast that shifts among the author’s assorted haunts: Outer Cape Cod, the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, Manhattan’s Great White Way-and a Trappist monastery. With a reporter’s eye for detail, Yaremko’s writing zooms in to reveal and explore our true frontiers-the people, events, and ideas we too easily overlook. Saints and Poets, Maybe is an entertaining, exhilarating, and enchanting journey, and a welcome gift for readers thirsty for a book of enrichment and companionship.
