Individual Author Record
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General InformationName: John ManderinoPen Name: None Genre: Born: Sites:
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Illinois Connection
John is a Riverdale, Illinois native.Biographical and Professional Information
JOHN MANDERINO lives in Maine with his wife Marie, where he teaches college writing and provides coaching and editing services to other writers. He has published three novels, a collection of short stories and a memoir with Academy Chicago. John has also written plays that have been performed at theater festivals and other venues. A stage version of his memoir Crying at Movies was recently produced.Published Works 
Titles At Your Library
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The H-Bomb and the Jesus Rock ISBN: 0897336119 Chicago Review Press. 2010 It's Saturday, October 27, 1962, the darkest day of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Two children, Ralph and his little sister Lou, are searching for empty bottles in a vacant lot when they discover a rock which - to them, at least - looks quite a lot like Jesus. Ralph immediately declares it a Possible Holy Object. And, since his fondest wish is to be a ""boy-in-a-story"", he earnestly places himself and Lou - now his ""sidekick"" - in a tale featuring the ""sacred rock"" as the key to nothing less than saving the world from nuclear annihilation. But there's another boy, Toby - older, shrewder, and quite a bit larger - who has very different plans for the rock, intending to use it as a lucrative sideshow exhibit, complete with fliers: Is it Jesus? Or just a rock? You decide! Hovering over the children and their small scale war is the general anxiety and dread attending the most perilous moment in our history. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, The H-Bomb and the Jesus Rock provides a unique, children's-eye view of that near-Armageddon.|It's Saturday, October 27, 1962, the darkest day of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Two children, Ralph and his little sister Lou, are searching for empty bottles in a vacant lot when they discover a rock which - to them, at least - looks quite a lot like Jesus. Ralph immediately declares it a Possible Holy Object. And, since his fondest wish is to be a ""boy-in-a-story"", he earnestly places himself and Lou - now his ""sidekick"" - in a tale featuring the ""sacred rock"" as the key to nothing less than saving the world from nuclear annihilation. But there's another boy, Toby - older, shrewder, and quite a bit larger - who has very different plans for the rock, intending to use it as a lucrative sideshow exhibit, complete with fliers: Is it Jesus? Or just a rock? You decide! Hovering over the children and their small scale war is the general anxiety and dread attending the most perilous moment in our history. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, The H-Bomb and the Jesus Rock provides a unique, children's-eye view of that near-Armageddon. |
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The Man Who Once Played Catch with Nellie Fox: A Novel ISBN: 089733597X Chicago Review Press. 2009 This is John Manderino's second novel, a hilarious romp about a man in his forties who finally decides to get a life, but can't figure out how. |
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Crying at Movies: A Memoir ISBN: 0897335805 Chicago Review Press. 2008 When Hitchcock's The Birds, began showing in the summer of 1963 at the Dolton Theater, the starlings of Riverside, Illinois launched their attacks. They were 'black, freckled, oily-looking things' with 'tiny black buttons for eyes.' They carried off Skippy Whalen's baseball cap, pooped on Father Rowley's finger, and attacked a feisty little dog named Tuffy who fought them off. 'I blamed Alfred Hitchcock' says the author, a Catholic grammar school student at the time.In this comic, witty memoir, John Manderino shows us how the pivotal points of his life have been enmeshed with movie moments. Crying at Movies presents thirty-eight succinct chapters, each bearing the title of a film.Brief Encounter, the last chapter, finds our movie-seeking Everyman hiding in his girlfriend's bathroom so she won't see him crying over the final scene. Crying at Movies is at once a love-letter to an art form and a humorous appreciation of the distinctions between movie scenes and life's realities. |
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Reason For Leaving: Job Stories ISBN: 089733499X Academy Chicago. 2005 On a job application, there's that tricky question: reason for leaving? John Manderino's answers are collected here in this hilarious novel tracing the history of a guy trying to grow up job by job. Delivery boy, altar boy, busboy, teacher, cotton picker, umpire, Zen monk—Manderino's protagonist tries on one hat after another. |
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Sam and His Brother Len ISBN: 0897334078 Chicago Review Press. 2005 This is the funny, poignant story of two brothers growing up in the early '60s. Manderino lightly approaches the underside of the middle American family in a tumultuous period of history. |
