A captivating, humorous and touching memoir of one child’s 1960s/early ‘70s life in a heavily Polish-American Massachusetts village, school and church

With Compositions, Suzanne Strempek Shea returns to the Polish America in which she set her first four acclaimed novels, chiseling an extraordinary memoir, about her early years in a close-knit 1960s and ‘70s Polish-American Massachusetts grade school and community. Life revolves in a circle of faith and family . . .

AMONG THE PRAISE FOR COMPOSITIONS

“How is it possible for a collection of personal essays to read like the finely rendered dream of a masterful novel? The authentic voice here alone is worth the price of admission for it captures the very soul of its bright, precocious narrator who happens to be Catholic and Polish-American and growing up in the 1960s in a neighborhood so tight-knit that it is a cultural canyon from which there’s no exit until it’s time to leave. But in Suzanne Strempek Shea’s immensely capable hands, I predict that you will want to stay right here – as I did - in these moving, often funny, and deeply compelling pages. Compositions is a gem.”
– Andre Dubus III, New York Times Bestselling Author of the Oprah Book Club Pick House of Sand and Fog

“Suzanne Strempek Shea’s portrait of her eight years at a Polish American Catholic elementary school in a small Massachusetts hamlet accomplishes what literature does best. The author documents a vanished world in which very little happened, yet in her rendering it pulses with the drama of the great throbbing universe. If, as Baudelaire has said, genius is childhood recaptured at will, we have in Compositions a splendid and spellbinding example.”
– Madeleine Blais, author and Pulitzer-prize winning journalist

“Suzanne Strempek Shea’s Compositions offers captivating, joyful stories of ethnicity and faith, accordion lessons, cabbage rolls, and first holy communion. Her memories will feel familiar no matter what your grandparents served for Sunday dinner because this is a story of community, of loving families endeavoring to carve out a future in the fast-growing ethnic melting pot of America, a story as relevant today as it has ever been. A wonderful, witty,
brilliant memoir.” – Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer

“Suzanne Strempek Shea is a born daydreamer – at school “a lot of kids liked to look out the window and

I was one of them” – and a born archivist. Compositions is a preservationist’s treasure chest in which she gathers the smallest of moments from the 1960s: as a sign of affection, a wife slides over in the front seat of car to sit next to her husband, a nun hurls a geography book (without irony of course) at a misbehaving student, children wear  Wonder Bread cellophane wrappers so that snow boots are easier to slip on and stay dry. Readers can rejoice at Shea’s exhilarating relationship with the world, full of natural beauty but also prickly unknowns. She sorts it out, in the voice of a supremely engaging and trustworthy narrator as if talking to a childhood best friend in a loud whisper when the nuns aren’t looking.” – Jacqueline Blais, former USA Today book reporter/editor

“Reading Suzanne Strempek Shea’s delightful essay collection Compositions is like stepping into a Time Machine and traveling back to the days of workbooks and cafeteria ladies, waiting in lines and school uniforms in a Polish-American town where everyone knows everyone, goes to the same church and the same parochial school. Strempek Shea’s vivid details and unique voice will charm every lucky reader.” – Ann Hood, author of Fly Girl: A Memoir

“You don’t have to be Polish or a parochial school survivor to delight in Suzanne Strempek Shea’s hilarious and often touching new book. This collection of essays time travels you back to your own coming of age–but this time you will enjoy the ride!” – Marianne Leone, author of Christina the Astonishing

“In a distinctive and engaging voice, Suzanne Strempek Shea captures the innocence and boundless curiosity of her girlhood self as she navigates the mysteries and mythologies of her Polish Catholic upbringing and education in her latest book, Compositions. Blending sharp wit with a tender sense of nostalgia, Strempek Shea brings to life the close-knit world of her Massachusetts parish community in the1960s and early ‘70s, masterfully shaping stories of the people and experiences she encountered into an intimate narrative that will resonate with anyone who grew up trying to unravel the complexities of their religious traditions. I loved it from the first word to the very last.”

– Melanie Brooks, author of A Hard Silence and Writing Hard Stories

“This charming memoir captures the wonder and confusion of childhood, where questions about God, ponies, and Playtex bras coexist—and comedy quietly reigns.”
– James Conroyd Martin, author of Napoleon’s Shadow Wife: A Novel of Countess Marie Walewska