Nova Scotian author shares historical, personally relevant books at café event
Gary Chisholm writes about people who are truly inspiring, if his two published books are any indication. And given that the two books he spoke about at the People’s Place Library in Antigonish on Oct. 3 were about his uncle and one of his closest friends, the Pictou-based author doesn’t have to look too far for inspiration.
Chisholm spoke to a community room full of guests about his two published books, The One-eyed Gunner, and Run Benny, Run, as part of a Community Café book talk.
The former of the two is a tale about his uncle Clarence ‘Larry’ Bentley Sutherland – a farm boy from Nova Scotia who eventually rose to prominence as Canada’s top air gunner ace in the Second World War.
Although the story is in parts fanciful, with Larry being inspired by a pilot visiting the farm he lived on, and wanting to earn similar honours as a boy, the story touches on the dangers, difficulties and terrors of flying missions in a bomber in war time.
Much of the story, and the description Chisholm provided, was sourced from flight log books, and takes place in the rear gun chambers of bombers, where Chisholm’s uncle did the shooting that earned him his title – all in spite of a vision impairment.
"Someone asked me about perspective," Chisholm said, standing beside a poster depicting one of the bombers in which his uncle flew, describing the writing process as he drew on historical facts and figures. "I felt [when I was writing] like I was in a drone, looking down."
After the publication of The One-eyed Gunner, the self-published author "felt a void after my first book." It wasn’t long before ideas started to form in that void, for the next book.
Chisholm’s friend, a former diving partner, "who I met in a little diving shop in Charlottetown, 40 years ago," Benedict ‘Benny’ Lagundzija, was the inspiration for, and titular character in Run Benny, Run.
Just like The One-eyed Gunner, Run Benny, Run takes an unflinching look into the perilous lives many people have lived in historical eras.
The book documents the struggles, and eventual triumph of Benny, a man born into poverty in Yugoslavia. Chisholm weaves together a picture of a boy experiencing an unstable upbringing in poverty, and eventually transient existence, moving from one place to another as he grew, numerous ugly brushes with the law – and eventually a death-defying escape to Italy, in a hail of gunfire, before immigrating to Canada.
The creation of Run Benny, Run was an emotional and personal process, drawing on an assortment of personal information from Benny.
Chisholm noted his writing has moved readers and Benny, himself. Even Chisholm became emotional at one point, reading a pivotal gut-wrenching passage in the book.
The only regret Chisholm admitted to was the fact that the story’s main protagonist, Benny, was unable to speak at the library due to illness.
While speaking to guests at the People’s Place, Chisholm described the enormity of the effort writing historical content entails, and thanked everyone from the many fellow writers who offered to edit his work, to staff at the Pictou Antigonish Regional Library, for the assistance they provided him, when he did the research for his books.
I felt [when I was writing] like I was in a drone, looking down. Gary Chisholm