BOOKS

Author's 'personal scrapbook' a compelling read

Reviewed by Andrew Junker | February 3, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

It used to be that people would keep scrapbooks of their memories and clippings and hand those on to their loved ones. Now, it’s not that expensive to self-publish a book of reminiscences or get one published through a small, local publishing house.

These books, of which The Catholic Sun has reviewed a number, can often be charming and interesting to the reader. But many times, you just feel like you’re looking in on a stranger’s photo album.

In superficial ways, Jane Conrad Kosco’s book, “BBC: A story of Beatrice Biesanz Conrad” fits this memoir-as-personal-scrapbook category.

Photos, newspaper clippings, telegrams and handwritten notes fill many of the book’s 200 pages. These primary sources help sketch the life of the book’s subject: a poet, traveler, mother of 10 children and generally fascinating woman.

Kosco, Beatrice Biesanz Conrad’s third child and mother to local priest Fr. Billy Kosco, helps fill in some more of her mother’s biography with her own remembrances. The portrait that emerges will engross the reader. I read the entire book in one sitting.

Beatrice Biesanz married Max Conrad, a pilot in the early years of aviation. The Minnesota family began having children, but Max’s career often kept him away from home.

Eventually, Conrad decided to flee the hectic lifestyle of modern America and move with her children to a remote Swiss town. A number of years of European education and traveling ensued with Max visiting very infrequently.

The brood moved back to America, and then back to Europe. And then back to America, again. It becomes difficult to keep track of the family that was unusually globetrotting for mid-20th century Americans.

Max continues his flying, and eventually secures a number of Guinness World Records.

While this gives a basic outline to the book, it’s actually a terrible description of it. What is really special is Conrad’s writing.

How can you not be utterly charmed by a woman who writes the following poem to mark the birth of her seventh child, Louise Christine, who was born Christmas Eve, 1943?

She arrived Christmas Eve, belated and bored,

All cellophane glisten and serpentine cord —

Her winter-twig hair and berry-stained heel

Were parentheses marking demands for a meal!

Or, consider her description of the birth of her ninth child, Francesco. Beatrice had decided to give birth to the newest family addition in Florence for a number of reasons.

She was staying in some rooms at an old villa, and Livia, the woman who did the laundry at the estate, had taken to sleeping near the pregnant woman in case she went into labor.

One early morning, that labor came and Beatrice yelled for Livia to get a taxi, but Livia thought it more prudent to call the Misericordia. The Misericordia, as Conrad relates, “was a group of Florentines, professional men, who devoted several hours a week to help with almost any need. Their charitable work began during the Black Plagues of the Middle Ages and continued to this day.”

Finally, Livia sent her husband Giuseppe off to find the midwife, but not before he had had his morning caffé latte.

“Then came a loud knocking on the ballroom door. ‘La Misericordia!’ Livia cried in great excitement. The three of us crossed the enormous room; Livia slid back the heavy bolts. There stood three men in the medieval garb of monks with black hoods over their heads, holes cut for the eyes.

“Great wooden rosaries cinched their waists. ‘Signora,’ they intoned and bowed and pointed to a stretcher they carried. But the signora was still ambulatory and so we climbed into the old army lorry parked outside the courtyard.”

Conrad’s writing throughout the book is as pleasant, witty and charming as this. Kosco’s contributions are wonderful as well, and serve to keep some narrative structure in place.

At any rate, this is not a book just for Beatrice Conrad’s relatives. The quality of writing and scope of setting and situation make “BBC” a great addition to anyone’s library. 

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Media critic Andrew Junker is a staff writer for The Catholic Sun. Comments are welcome. Send e-mail to letters@catholicsun.org.