Don't Get Too Comfortable": Black and White - 2018 Revised"

Review By J. Hanna*"There is probably no such thing as an ordinary life, but some lives are more extraordinary than others. Robert Buckley has had some rare opportunities in his life and he makes the most of them. In the late mid-Twentieth Century it was still possible to encounter life largely free from the distortions of technology. From his perch in the Rocky Mountains, Mr. Buckley looks far over the horizon to Ireland where the Buckley journey to America began generations ago and then turns effortlessly to an opposite horizon to describe the lives of the inhabitants of Micronesia and the social and working adventures he shared with them first in the Peace Corps and later in a return visit with his family. The Buckley family holdings in Silver Plume, Colorado serve as the geographic and emotional center of this James A. Michener sized review of a chain of lives that stretches unbroken from the potato famine to a scattering of small islands in the Pacific and then back to Vail, Colorado as it is becoming one of the great ski resorts in the world. Along the way we are given glimpses of the good, the bad, and the ugly. The story has everything any story could ever want, from aggressive blue sharks to murder with avalanches, cyclones, gold strikes, true love and steady courage folded in. Many authors might lose the sense of unity with so many pieces to keep in play, but in Mr. Buckley's sure telling, and faith welds the links of the chain to make one out of many. It is something to keep in mind in a rapidly fracturing culture. The book is an easy breezy read, yet filled with plenty of action and insight. It is a very personal telling that has something for every kind of reader."*Joseph Hanna's diverse career includes writing the published Lawton Close Mystery Series, an award-winning humor column for the Sag Harbor Express, also penning a weekly cartoon, and showing his paintings in several art galleries in the Hamptons. He currently lives on an island with his wife and their dog.