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April 22, 2022 • Schneps Media
LOCAL NEWS
Next great Villager story
Greenwich Village author Michele Herman talks about new book
BY AIDAN SEIDEN
Becca Cammeyer was once
voted most likely to land a
gig on Broadway or in jail
for a good cause; now, years later,
she finds herself living a life she
could’ve never predicted.
One consisting of a solo residency
in a five-story walk-up with
her aging dog, teetering on broke,
with no friends or family to turn
to— and to top it all off she still
hears the ghost of her long-dead
father whispering in her ear. However
there is still one aspect of her
life that sparks joy, and that is her
job as a Greenwich Village tour
guide extraordinaire! Following a
tragic incident that strikes one of
her tour groups, Becca embarks
on a journey of introspection and
heart-searching, with the historic
streets of Greenwich Village to set
the stage.
While this may sound like a riveting
profile story of a NYC resident,
it is actually the plot of Save
the Village, the newest literary work
published by the award-winning essayist
and writer, Michele Herman.
“I’ve been a proud Villager since
1985, when my husband (then my
boyfriend) and I moved from Morningside
Heights to the West Village,”
said Herman, “The novel is my homage
to both the neighborhood itself
and to Villagers.”
Although this is Herman’s first fiction
novel, she is well versed in the
genre due to her longstanding position
as a fiction teacher, and in some
respects, she believes this to be her
second novel, since all the “action”
and extensive cast of characters featured
in the story are made up.
However, “just as a bird’s nest
might be made of sticks and straw
and dental floss,” bits and pieces
of reality always find their way into
a story, explained Herman, and in
this case it manifests in the form of
a character or their quirks.
One example of this was in the
creation of her protagonist, Becca
Cammeyer. Shortly after moving to
the Village, Herman and her husband
engaged in a “completely enthralled”
walking tour with an “enthusiastic
and knowledgeable” tour
guide, she recounted. Not only did
the memories from that experience
find a home in her story, but so did
aspects of the author’s own life—
though the similarities, as Herman
points out, are limited.
“Becca ended up with a couple of
habits and traits that resemble my
own – she has rules about how to do
things and she has a good memory
— but her life story couldn’t be more
different from mine. She grew up
in a Village tenement; I grew up in
a Connecticut suburb and live in a
converted warehouse. She’s single;
I’ve been married forever.”
Having lived in the Village for
over several decades, Herman became
familiar with every crack and
pothole, and every park and dweller
that inhabited her little hamlet. As
a result, there was nary a situation
or question in her story that she
couldn’t answer herself— but when
one did arise, the venturesome author
took her rear end out into the
streets to find the solution.
“I did have to learn about various
disparate things to fill in the pieces,”
she said.
Save the Village is widely available
online and in stock at the
Strand— although Herman urges
those interested in buying her novel
to consider purchasing it directly
from her independent publisher, Regal
House, or asking for it at Three
Lives & Company bookshop in the
West Village.
BY MAC SORENSEN
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mine through receptacles looking
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to help commit their fraudulent
crimes, which makes shredding
anything containing your sensitive
information so important.
Schneps Media and AARP New
York want to help you protect yourselves
from identity thieves by partnering
together to sponsor seven
free shredding events across the
Five Boroughs and Long Island in
the weeks ahead.
We’re bringing shredder trucks
to seven locations in April and May
so you can have your unwanted personal
documents torn to bits. All
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4free.com for any one of the seven
scheduled events.
“We do these events starting in
April because it’s the end of the taxfiling
season; many taxpayers like to
do a spring cleaning of their old financial
statements and other records,”
said Wilson Guzman, associate state
director of community engagement
for AARP New York.
Each registered person for the
shredding events are limited to three
bags or small boxes of confidential
documents for destruction. If you
haven’t removed staples or paper
clips, that’s okay; they can be shredded
along with the documents with
the powerful shredders on site.
Shredding equipment will be available
for three hours at each location,
or until full capacity is reached.
Among the items you can shred
at these free events include tax information;
investment records; bank
statements; cancelled checks; pay
stubs; ATM and credit card receipts;
credit card statements; insurance
information; utility bills; and more.
The Manhattan shredding event
will take place on Friday, May 20, 11
a.m.-2 p.m., Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
State Office Plaza, 163 West 125th
St., Harlem.
Register at shred4free.com.
Note: All participants are expected
to comply with COVID-19
safety precautions consistent
with CDC, federal, state and local
orders/regulations, and at a
minimum, to wear masks if unvaccinated
and maintain social
distance of 6 feet or more.
PHOTO VIA MICHELE HERMAN
Michele Herman, a one-time contributor to The Villager, talks about her new book, “Save the Village.”
PHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
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free shredding events across New York City and Long Island.
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