Coconut Grove Chronicles - Matthew Bamberg
Matthew Bamberg’s short story collection weaves a tapestry of Florida life, set against the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution and the counterculture upheavals of the 1960s. Drawing from his suburban Miami upbringing in historic Coconut Grove, Bamberg introduces a quirky protagonist spiraling into the bizarre--Cuban immigration, the occult, Vietnam War protests, drugs, and inconsistent values. He navigates prophecy, faith, and acceptance through eccentric interactions and sharp internal debates. The story lures readers' attention through the sharp dialogue of blossoming ambivalence toward family and friends. Bamberg’s career interests began as a boy with a focus on meteorology as part of the short story collection to produce the stark contrast of two worlds: one of science during which he followed his interest in storms from thunderstorms to hurricanes to his work in a groundbreaking South Florida cloud-seeding experiment at the same time as being swept up into the 1960s and 70s Coconut Grove counterculture. Later, after moving to San Francisco in the 1980s, Bamberg taught in public schools in the Bay Area while earning an interdisciplinary arts master’s degree from San Francisco State University. The quirky drama of Bamberg’s literary fiction, based upon real-life, weaves the art and science of questioning occultism values, then moving on to graduate studies of interdisciplinary arts’ impact on the societal boundaries of youth morality. By the 1990s, Bamberg merged writing and photography, focusing on history and social justice. His work evolved into nonfiction, contributing features to publications like The Desert Sun and Palm Springs Life, alongside a travel column titled One Tank Trips. His passion for photography culminated in the Digital Art Photography for Dummies (2005) and 11 additional books in the 101 Quick and Easy Secrets series. Today, Bamberg continues engaging with pressing local and national issues, With his wide background in a variety of subjects, Bamberg focuses his writing (what he refers to as “text and image”) on preservation and historically based mid-century articles, stories, and photographs. Think of Matthew Bamberg’s style as a combination of historian/writer Studs Turkle meeting the images of twentieth-century photographer Walker Evans. Matthew Bamberg is an accomplished photographer and writer, shooting and penning about all that remains from or resembles the twentieth century. His extensive writing on Medium.com consists of over 300 generalist articles (on many topics in many fields), from newsy op-eds about education to photography tips.
GENRE: Literary Fiction
Blurb:
A Miami-born boy watches the Cuban exiles arrive, their arrival transforming his traditional family's roles into a hilarious, multi-ring circus in the magical jungle of Coconut Grove. While his mother obsesses over the occult, he's torn between her cosmic-themed tangents and his mind-expanding crew of friends. This group encompasses a diverse range, from academic nerds to wild counterculture artists.
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