Open Wounds by Joseph Lunievicz

Open Wounds. Joseph Lunievicz. WestSide Books. May 2011. 352 pp. ISBN #: 9781934813515.

Cid Wymann's mother died during his birth, and his presence reminds his drunken father of that loss on a daily basis. This fact earns Cid frequent beatings, which his grandmother can do little to stop. But two things are his salvation. He makes two friends, Siggy and Tomik Kopecky, who help him battle the neighborhood bullies. He discovers his grandmother is not attending church services but really is going to the movies, a world Cid comes to revere as he is weekly thrilled by scenes in Captain Blood and other Erroll Flynn movies about swordplay duels. Cid yearns to learn to be a fencer and an actor but does'nt believe those dreams lie in the realm of possiblities. He is to be quite surprised!

Abandoned by his father and losing his grandmother eventually by death, Cid is now a homeless child with no known relatives. Siggy's mom and dad take him in for a while but are forced to find a relative as they have to move themselves during this period of economic decline and loss of jobs in early 20th Century New York. So begins an amazing adventure as Cid lives with Lefty, a distant cousin who was gassed in WWI and lost his left arm and leg as well. His passion was honoring the secret love he held for Cid's mother and acting. Cid now becomes the student of that latter passion, reading all of Shakespeare's plays and imagining the duels therein each play. Lefty teaches Cid to fight and his fencing lessons then begin with Lefty's friend, Nikolai Varvarinski, who is teaching him to fight for fighting's sake and not just for acting. The scenes of this very tough training are exhilarating, and the readers senses a huge battle coming!

Finally, the old bullies reappear surprisingly in an older, more sophisticated venue, and they are out for Cid, this time with death-dealing intentions. The remainder of the novel leads up to a climax in which victory, honor, and integrity fill the pages of this story for all involved, with some head-splitting, hair-raising battles added to spice the mix!

Open Wounds is well-written, plot-driven, with cultural additions about movies, plays, and The Great War, elements that combine to make this a phenomenal piece of historical fiction! Superbly done!