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Canfield student pens second book
By Billy Ludt
CANFIELD
Last year, Vincent Patierno, 16, turned several legal note pads of written work into his first book, “The Day to Day Revelation.”
A little more than a year later, the Canfield High School student’s next book is on deck, with another stack of notebooks filled with handwritten notes, and is poised to be published Dec. 1.
Where Vincent’s first work helped him make sense of the world through writing, “This Is Not Real Life” will offer a critique on humanity’s relationship with one another, their obligation to social media and his take on finding actual purpose in life.
“I titled it that because I feel like a lot of people – specifically my generation in particular – that people aren’t living their actual life,” he said.
His peers, Vincent said, tend to shape their lives solely for the sake of photo opportunities. He said they’re not living to their full purpose, but the book also will offer a possible means to do so.
“Frankly, it’s honest and real,” Vincent said. “It’s one of the better things I’ve written as well.”
This second book is an abstract approach to writing compared with “The Day to Day Revelation.” Some ideas began, Vincent said, as rhymes, or came to him after he awoke from a dead sleep at 4 a.m.
“I kind of want to show people, the people that read this, that the things they may encounter or face – adversities they may face – they are not alone in what they do,” he said. “The life they lead does have a sense of purpose. Though you may be knocked down or put to the breaking point, you do have more, and you can get back up.”
Vincent said his first book was more up-front. It was a depiction of what he was feeling throughout the days he was writing, reacting to what he was consuming, be it books, television or music.
“In doing that, I found what was important to me, and what I believed,” he said.
That exercise resulted in a 106-page book.
“This Is Not Real Life” doesn’t have a set number of pages yet, but Vincent said it will be longer.
He writes for the high school’s student newspaper, The Cardinal, where he covered the 2016 election. He said his sights are set on living and working in New York or Washington, D.C., and he plans to study journalism and political science in college.
Vincent’s work is available at www.lulu.com/spotlight/vincentpatierno.