roGer rosenBlATT Into the hands of this master, a terrible it a book.” any book genre. Time has gone by and the tragedy fell on Dec. 8, 2007. His daughter, Making Toast is at turns gut-wrenching, book feels less like a chronicle of grievous Amy, died suddenly of a rare and previously instructive, poetic and hilarious. In the rebirth and more like a meditation on life, undetected heart condition. Amy was 38 chaotic world the Rosenblatts have found literature and hope. The book is punctu- years old and, besides Dr. Rosenblatt and themselves, the book’s title refers to Dr. ated by several moving passages in which his wife, Ginny, Amy left behind a loving Rosenblatt’s mastery of creating the per- he addresses Amy directly. husband and three children ages 6, 4 and 1. fect breakfast for each grandchild. “I never thought of either Making Toast or Even though Amy and her family lived in Despite the book’s subject matter, there Kayak Morning as memoir,” he said. “Mak- Maryland - 300 miles from the Rosenblatts’ is a distinct lack of chest-thumping. The ing Toast is more of an account of what our home on Long Island – Robert and Ginny horror of the situation is assumed, under- family’s life has been like since our daugh- moved to Maryland and are helping to raise stated. There are some moments that would ter’s death. And Kayak Morning is more of the three children. He commutes between be painful to bear if not for the book’s deft a meditation...There’s no category for the the Maryland home of his grandchildren literary touch, such as the description of kind of work I’m trying to do now – work and his job as a writing professor in the baby James asking, at a visit to the cem- that straddles poetry and prose and deals “i THinK BOOKS WiLL DO JUST FinE. iF gOOD PEOPLE KEEP WRiTing AnD SMART PEOPLE KEEP READing, BOOKS WiLL DO JUST FinE. AnD THE nEW FORMS MigHT DO FinE TOO.” MFA program at Stonybrook University. etery, “When is Mommy coming home?” with fact and thought in the same work. And in his grief, he began writing what Another description of 4-year-old Sammy There’s no real name for it, but ‘memoir’ would become two powerfully meditative pantomiming the moment he found Amy comes closest.” bestselling books, Making Toast andKayak dead is a similarly poignant reminder that Two and a half years after Amy’s death, Morning. He will deliver the Guarnaschelli this is real. Or, as Dr. Rosenblatt writes, Dr. Rosenblatt decided to take up kayak- Lecture at Bellarmine on April 10, and he’ll “We will never feel right again.” But the ing. The solitary excursions on the water also be leading writing workshops for Bel- thread of unconditional love remains taut provide time and quiet to reflect but also larmine students during his visit. throughout and the tenderness between a metaphor for how a man deals with love, “Writing was like a reflex,” he said in a the grandchildren and the grieving adults grief, anger, pain, money and God. By “going recent telephone interview while en route reminds us that we humans can help each nowhere” in his kayak, he is going some- between his two lives. “An athlete would other through anything. where and taking us all with him. work out, a carpenter would build a bench There are also some downright hilarious Because he is both a writer and a writing and a writer writes. I don’t think Amy had moments, as befits anyone in mourning, in- instructor, there are also lots of delicious been dead two days that I started to take cluding a scene featuring the Easter Bunny quotes, references and insights into writing notes. It was like a reflex that I knew my that would be inappropriate to spoil here and writers, including Joyce, Camus, Dar- own survival depended on. Then I made (and at any rate includes language that’s win and Melville. Oh, and zombie movies. some more notes and I had a conversation best left unpublished in a family magazine). And Chuck E. Cheese. Those kinds of brief with David Remnick, the editor of The New InKayak Morning, subtitled “Reflections insights, interwoven into his more person- Yorker. He said he’d want to see something on love, grief, and small boats,” Dr. Rosen- al passages, are what make his books feel later and I gave him an essay. That’s how blatt’s follow-up toMaking Toast, he begins like a new genre. Making Toast started. From that I made to develop a style that doesn’t fit neatly into “When I was very young I wanted to be a 36 BELLArMinE MAgAZinE
Bellarmine Magazine_Spring2013
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