As you may recall, and you two too. I suggested you read Saroyan’s book before I even got my hands on it. Less than 48 hours later I got a copy of the book from Western Washington University’s Library via interlibrary loan. I expected that whole process to take a couple weeks, not a couple days.
I also purchased a copy from a rare book store somewhere over there a few time zones east of here via eBay.
As we speak, I’m finishing up the WWU copy and getting it back into their library just as my very own copy is arriving via USPS, finishing up the 2750 mile journey to its new home.
Saroyan worked at various jobs his entire childhood. Orchards, vineyards, selling newspapers, county fairs, working, working, telegram bike messengering for a few years all around Fresno at age 12, 13, 14. He knew he wanted to be a writer early on. He hated school so he quit at 15. But he kept working at various jobs to pay the bills.
In this BR-BH book, Saroyan’s 8-year old son Aram wants and gets a new big big bicycle. In real real life, Aram grows up to be kind of a big deal in the writing and poetry world. From the Seattle Public Library I got my hands on two of Aram Saroyan’s books of minimal poems, published about 60 years ago. Single-word poems, just a few letters and a whole lot of white space. Great stuff, right up my alley. Here’s an example, one that stuck with me:
hghgh
Visualize that in the center of the page, nothing to distract you, until you turn the page to another one-word poem…
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