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Take an Exhilarating, Action-Packed Ride On a New York Ambulance with Author Mike Scardino
About Blog Post
May 11, 2022
by SCLSNJ
The Somerset County Library System of New Jersey (SCLSNJ) will be hosting a virtual program with author Mike Scardino on June 16 from 7-8 p.m.
Scardino is the author of "Bad Call: A Summer Job on a New York Ambulance," an intense collection of unforgettable recollections and stories taking place from 1967 through 1971.
“This is a very personal book,” said Scardino. “It's not like I'm talking about a work of fiction, or I'm an actor talking about the character they're playing. And, so I probably tend to go a little bit overboard, and of course, everybody's too polite to stop me and say move on to something else. But, you know, it was cathartic to write.”
Continued Scardino, “a lot of these chapters are very short. But, I think I was able to paint a picture; the stories are very visual. I used to be a photographer, a very serious photographer. I tried to make the stories as if you're really looking through my eyes. I tried to recreate the scene almost as if my own camera was moving through the experience.”
Scardino, who is married to a librarian, felt inspired by the movie “Wings of Desire.” After viewing that film, he awoke the next morning, at 4 a.m., knowing exactly how his book would be formatted and sound. Scardino then wrote the book from start to finish in four months. The result is an enduring and truly unique nonfiction narrative.
"Many of us like to fondly recall memories made during summers in between college academic years, and time spent on the jobs that gave them some kind of structure,” said Darryl Voorhees, manager of adult services programming and collaborations. “Mike Scardino's memoir is based on this formative experience, but it's hardly a carefree exercise. The stories collected here are intensely action-packed and punctuated with a quirky mix of empathy and gallows humor. They capture the time and place alongside the universality of self-discovery."
Register to attend this virtual author event: sclsnj.libnet.info/event/6194283. To discover all SCLSNJ has to offer, visit SCLSNJ.org or connect with SCLSNJ on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.