Book Review: Racine author Dominick Cibrario's 'Secrets on the Family Farm'

Reviewed by James F. Fisher, Carleton College

Readers who have followed Nick Cibrario’s fiction will recall the bizarre, blood-and-guts tale of adventure in Nepal set forth in his trilogy of novels, The Pomelo Tree, The Harvest, and The Shamans. Those stalwart readers who hung in there for the duration (dealing with witchcraft, drugs, organ harvesting, and death, they were not for the faint of heart) will be more than a little curious to see what he’s come up with for a sequel. His first books are a hard act to follow.

The setting for Secrets on the Family Farm could not be more different from that of his trilogy – nothing exotic (at least in the conventional, geographical sense) down on the Wisconsin farm. This time the characters are all people we can readily identify with (well….maybe not after we get to know them), because they are all right out of middle America. Not only are they inhabitants of the heartland, but they represent the quintessential rural backbone of the nation – the much-vaunted and much-praised family farm, and the core American family values it represents – or so we think before Cibrario lets us in on its dirty little secrets. O. Henry once said that every family has its own hidden drama. Secrets on the Family Farm reveals the inner workings of one such family.

As we move along through this novel, we discover a side of rural American life we don’t expect. As with the trilogy, the faint of heart need to beware of what they are getting into here also. If you are looking for stories about 4-H clubs and the dignity of tilling the soil through the sweat of one’s brow, you will be disappointed. At one time or the other in his 31 carefully constructed chapters, Cibrario treats in some depth - and with suspense because we don’t seem them coming - such topics as homosexuality, alcoholism, marital infidelity, adultery, child abuse, insanity, suicide, and murder. Not exactly traditional family values politicians like to talk about.

These somewhat unsavory topics are served up against the backdrop of the culture of those times which Cibrario evokes, for those old enough to remember them, with fondness and nostalgia. This essentially historical novel, set in the early 1950s, includes cameo appearances by such performers, athletes, and personalities as Loretta Young, Bing Crosby, Vivien Leigh, Micky Mantle, Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Ginger Rogers, Doris Day, and the Lone Ranger. He also reminds us of such signs of the times as drive-in movies, Amos and Andy programs, and Nash and Studebaker cars. For those who are not old enough to have lived through this era, and this presumably includes most readers, this novel will serve as an excellent introduction to those bygone days.

What is revealing in all this is that the idolized family farm is riven with contradictions, which Cibrario sets forth in vivid and uncompromising detail: the onerous life of the farm wife, the pressures on and consequent drunkenness of men working off-farm, Catholic priests involved in affairs with women, as well as sexual exploitation of children, and most interestingly, the deleterious effects of World War II on both the men who left to fight it, and the women they left behind to somehow manage such things as the family farm. The war is portrayed as having changed people so dramatically that they cannot recover from its pernicious effects, and even if they have, the Korean War has moved in to take its place.

Thus the novel is both a fictive ethnography of middle American rural life – as it is really lived, according to Cibrario, not as it is imagined or portrayed in Norman Rockwell paintings – and a sobering account of the way the effects of the war continue for decades to form and distort the lives of those who were active in it. Cibrario’s novel reminds us that life with all its tawdry little secrets displayed is more interesting and arresting than the anemic caricatures we usually have to settle for.

Secrets on the Family Farm is Dominick Cibrario's fourth novel. He previously published "The Kathmandu Trilogy," which was written up in the Times of India. Cibrario lives in Racine and is a retired teacher from Horlick High School.

Review: Racine Art Guild's annual Invitation Show

Carol Madsen - "Florida Madsen"

By Nick Cibrario, author & artist

The public is invited to attend the Racine Art Guild's annual Invitational Show on Saturday, Sept. 27, at The Avenue Frame Shop, 402 Main Street in Racine, Wisconsin. The gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the event. The reception is 1 to 3 p.m.

Let's begin our tour with Dee Dee Dumont's painting , "Northwester Comin'. " Her dramatic seascape was created along the shore of Lake Michigan in Kenosha after a storm. A band of glowing sunlight separates the sky from the lake. A ponderous bearded fisherman holding a net and wearing a heavy coat gazes upon the turbulent tide as it crashes against the gray rocks, the breakwater, and the boathouse. Dumont's subject complements Pablo Picasso's statement, "Art washes away from the soul, the dust of everyday life."

Jerry Belland - "Angel in the Tree"

Next is Marie Skowronski's charming painting, "Dusk." Her acrylic was created from a photograph taken in Shawano, Wisconsin. She said, "While sitting in a restaurant overlooking the small lake, my husband and I were looking at the geese. People would buy corn and throw it to them. Some of the geese are watching and waiting; others are stretching their necks eager to eat." Skowronski's geese stand in the rays of the setting sun as darkness embraces the background.

Adele Wheeler used pastels for her spring floral landscape, "Back to the Future." She said, "The sketches were done while sitting inside a car parked on the shoulder of the road. The setting is the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad tracks, with a field of gorgeous flowers reflected in the side mirror. My painting is dedicated to my grandfather, an engineer for 45 years on the Santa Fe Railroad."

While travelling from Duluth to Canada, Pat Wiskerchen photographed numerous rivers and waterfalls from which she painted "Temperance River." She said, "I have an affinity for birch trees. To me they represent purity and grace. I even brought one home from Finland, Minnesota and planted it in my yard."

Nancy Greenebaum - "Harvest Gold"

Let's take time to admire Janet Mrazek's original illustrations for a children's book, "Jasmine's Courage." Her sister, Claudia Kalinoski, wrote the story about her cat. When Jasmine was a stray kitten, she experienced a single act of courage that changed her life forever. Mrazek used felt tip markers and oil pastel crayons to make the illustrations. She was influenced by Kevin Henkes, the winner of the 2005 Caldecott Award.

John Falk studied Art History last spring at Parkside, which included the Medieval Period. His skillfully constructed composition, "The Traveler," suggests a pilgrim from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," heading toward the cathedral. Falk's watercolor depicts the traveler holding a staff. He wears a leather hat, scarf, and cloak in preparation for his arduous spiritual journey. This painting is a study using Gary A. Lippincott's technique and subject.

Mary Ann Logic says she's "an expressionist interested in depicting emotion in her work." She was influenced by the German printmaker Kothe Killwitz. Her print "Touched by the Hand of Compassion…" deals with a lost child sitting near a busy city street. A compassionate hand descends and offers help to the abandoned boy. "My picture is an original, hand carved, pressed and pulled relief linocut that is oil based. It is a response to the Aids crisis in South Africa."

Pat Wiskerchen - "Temperance River"

Janet Hoffman's painting is based upon a photograph sent to her in 1944. Her composition is "a sentimental journey involving a bright young man (I would later marry and live with for 30 years) astride a Harley Davidson motorbike. He's an M.P with a sidearm at the U.S. Army's motor pool in Manila, Philippines."

The subject of Sandra Nowicki's "Spirit Horse" is a leaping mustang, outlined in blue acrylic on a diamond shaped collage. It is splashed with turquoise, yellow, and rose paint. She wove layers of yarn embedded in her own handmade paper. Strings of beads and feathers complete the Native American motif. Nowicki's equestrian image is modeled after the spirited horses on her farm in Kenosha County.

Phyllis Weber's "Untitled "landscape was influenced by Andrew Wyeth. She said, "I have always loved the North Woods, where I spent as much time as possible when I was younger. The woods make me want to sit and reflect on God, who made this beautiful and restful place. "

David Gaura & Candice Hoffman - "Welcome" - sculputure

The focal point of Ellen Cardwell's whimsical watercolor, "Anglican Communion," is the vicar, welcoming his congregation to the Eucharistic Service in a pink stucco church on Harbor Island in the British West Indies. Cardwell said, "I was enchanted during my painting workshop by the local ladies and their colorful outfits. The dogs, cats, roosters, and children roam freely on the terraced lawn while well dressed families ascend the stairs for Sunday worship. This study was done in plein air."

Thanks for joining us. Come again during Party on the Pavement on Oct. 4.

Kate Proeber- Garden Girls I -Glenda