“Our Own Kind” by Umberto Tosi

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August 1, 2014 · Posted in Our Own Kind - Umberto Tosi · Comment 
Our Own Kind cover Kindle edition

 

The story takes place in Los. Angeles between the assassinations of MLK and RFK. But is is PURELY fiction. a RUMINATION. The author, Umberto Tosi, modeled characters, situations and events on experiences — personal and professional — during  his decade as a writer and editor at the Los Angeles Time during the 1960s and early 70s.

It’s not an attempt at expose, or investigation, more a musing on personal vectors with history, the inner reverberations and considerations experiences by — after all — ordinary people surviving near the ground zero of social and political tragedy and cataclysm, and the interplay of race and culture with same.  

Boryanabooks will serialize the book over the next several issues.

LATimes-UT-1969

 

UT_Lake_Jul72014

Umberto Tosi (aka Nino Tosi) Then and Now

 

 

 

by Umberto Tosi

 

Copyright©2012 by Umberto Tosi

 – all rights reserved

 

1. RED ALL OVER

Damn florescent lights keep flickering, just like the one over his desk back at the Times. All this white could make him invisible. Bleached walls, tiles, curtains, bedding, pale as his ghostly face, set off against his black silky Sy Devore shirt and the dark droplets of blood peeking from her bandages that worry him. Air conditioning blows soundlessly from vents above, morgue-cold in this sterile space, once removed from the smoggy heat of this June morning in Los Angeles. This summer, not of love, 1968, will be very long.

Makeda’s monitor beeps in reassuring syncopation with the wheezy snores of a curtained-off roommate. A muted TV oozes soap opera from high on a wall opposite her bed. Makeda hates TV, and would loathe that her picture – a dated, inappropriately smiling high school yearbook shot – keeps showing up on network news, and in the papers, though only below the fold now. Read more

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