Just in time for Christmas copies of Robert V. Parenti’s ‘A Story of Love and War: World War II Recollections from Letters Written to a Solider’s Sweetheart? are now available for sale locally.
Copies can be purchased at The Oxford Leader office at 666 S. Lapeer Rd., just north of Oakdell Rd., and through Lake Orion dentist Dr. Joseph Mastromatteo (248-693-1331).
The book gives a unique perspective on World War II derived from the 100 or so letters from then-Army Private First Class Parenti, who served in the European Theater, to Laurie, his sweetheart waiting and worrying back home.
Parenti served as the attorney for Oxford and Addison townships, plus the villages of Oxford and Lake Orion, for 30 years. He and Laurie have been married for 61 years and reside in Stuart, Florida.
From the humid, bug-and-mud-filled swamps of Louisiana, where Parenti trained with the 8th Armored Division, to the PFC’s experiences in England, France, Belgium, Holland and finally Germany, the book gives a riveting and vivid account of WWII, not from some retired general or university historian, but from a simple dogface who lived it.
‘It is to honor those forgotten heroes that this effort was completed and it is to them that this story is dedicated,? Parenti said.
You’ll laugh when you read about Parenti’s reaction to a mother breast-feeding on a train (a rare sight in the 1940s) and you’ll feel your heart sink when he writes about his visit to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, where the Nazis murdered 50,000 inmates, including Anne Frank.
Published by Trafford Publishing, the book sells for $25. Of that, $15 from each copy will be distributed among the War Memorial in Orion, Oxford American Legion Post 108’s military history museum and efforts to build a veterans memorial in Stuart, Florida.
Plans are in the works for Parenti to visit the area in the spring and conduct a book signing at the Oxford Public Library.
For more information visit www.astoryofloveandwar.com.