Stories of Love and Romance
Star-Ledger
To call “Listening Is an Act of Love” a collection of stories about love is misleading at this time of year. Certainly some of the stories are about the romantic, red-hearts kind of love compatible with Valentine’s Day. But such stories are only one aspect of the complex and nuanced stories of love and devotion collected in this volume. There are as many kinds of love in this collection as there are stories to tell — romantic love, the love of families and children, even of longtime friends.
Dave Isay conceived the StoryCorps project and model based on his lifelong fascination with oral histories and his work as a radio producer. The first official StoryCorps booth opened in Grand Central Station in October, 2003. There also is a permanent booth set up at Ground Zero, and a mobile booth that travels to cities and towns nationwide.
Participants sign up for a time slot and record a 40-minute interview. Two copies of the interview are burned to CD for them to keep, while another copy is stored in the archives of the American Folklife Project. NPR airs weekly segments from the projecton “Morning Edition” and “News and Notes.”
The volume is organized in five thematic sections, with stories of romantic love weaving throughout the book. “Home and Family” tells some stories of first love, marriage, and of beloved relatives. In this section Hee Sook Lee, a Korean immigrant interviewed by her daughter, Joyce Kim Lee, imparts her three essential phrases for a loving relationship: “first, express to each other ‘I love you, honey’; second, appreciate each other by saying ‘thank you; and the other thing is saying ’sorry’.”
‘Work and Dedication” includes stories of first jobs, odd jobs, dream jobs and back-breaking labor. In this section is the particularly sweet story of Scott and Catherine Kohanek, who met at Kenwood Elementary School where she was a special education teacher and he was a custodian. Their friendship and blossoming romance gave him the courage to go back to school and become a teacher himself. They married in the lunchroom of the school where they met.
A section entitled “Journeys” details both geographical and spiritual travels, and “History and Struggle” tells the stories of those who witnessed the Depression, the Holocaust or the birth of the Civil Rights movement, among others. The love detailed in these sections is complex and fierce devotion. A family grieves the loss of its young son. A young man comes out to his family and his small town community. A daughter recalls the first time she and her father talked about his experience in Auschwitz. Taylor Rogers, a sanitation worker who went on strike in 1968, talks about Martin Luther King’s last speech.
The last section, “Fire and Water,” is from story booths set up at Ground Zero and in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. If you find yourself reading through tears, rereading some sweeter stories from the first section will help you catch your breath.
It is probably best to read this collection slowly. Each story, no more than three pages in length, is rich and particular in detail. To avoid the confusion that may result from reading too many in one sitting, resolve to make this a book to savor and to return to.
