Hardcover: 224 pages
ISBN: 978-1937592011
It is a simple story of a generation coming of age in a place and time we will not see the likes of again.
Michael Mazen was a child of the Great Depression and grew up on the streets of the Bronx. Snapshots of a Bronx Love Affair, covering 60 years, is the story of his life before, during and after World War II.
Few things are more painful than an unrequited love and his figured largely over a life of events, both great and mundane. That the love he held for her was captured only in brief moments, snapshots in time, didn’t matter.
That he lived and loved others was something we all aspire to and as a great singer once sang,
“The greatest thing… you’ll ever learn,
is just to love… and be loved in return.”
Michael loved, and in return, was loved.
This is a story of how the love of life (and a life of love) can burn brightly even in the darkest days and nights.
About the Author:
Martin Kroll was a teacher and an author. As an English teacher in the New York City school system for 35 years, guiding both junior high school and high school students in the study of literature and writing. His tenure included being a member of the faculties at both Herman Ritter Junior High School and Evander Childs High School. In his role as faculty advisor at Evander Childs, he nurtured numerous young and budding writers in publishing the school’s literary magazine for many years.
His literary career has included publication in New Voices and as a writing contributor to the screen play for Sweet Love Bitter (1967). Snapshots of a Bronx Love Affair is his first novel and are fictional reflections of one man’s life before, during and after World War II. His life experiences included participating in the liberation of Europe as a member of Patton’s 3rd Army and witnessing the horror of the Holocaust.
In addition, his quest for knowledge led him to be both an art collector and international dealer of primitive art to the American art community. He spent many years of joy introducing Mexican, Portuguese and Yugoslavian artists to American art galleries and collectors.
“Marty” was a great listener but even a better counsel to his friends and family on both life and the difficult decisions one faces throughout. His “moral compass” always pointed the way.
This book is his legacy to both his family and his friends.
Martin Kroll: An Appreciation
For more than 30 years, thousands entered his classroom as students and emerged as the beneficiaries of his humane, erudite and skillful teaching.
His gifts to his students included an appreciation of language and literature, and an understanding of the essentials of literate writing. A teacher of writing, he was a writing teacher—someone who practiced the craft they sought to teach to others as this novel so eloquently reveals.
It is most appropriate that after all his years of presenting the works of other writers; his last achievement was to write this novel which he had long planned. As a colleague and friend, I read the novel with admiration as I know others will as well.
Henry Adams wrote, “A teacher affects eternity: he can never tell when his influence stops.”
Marty Kroll was such a teacher. His influence has never stopped.
Arthur Feinberg
September 2011
