Carolina Comments: Fiction & Theater

RENEWAL

Whether you celebrate Easter or Passover or neither, spring is a time of renewal and hope.  Here in North Carolina, we are deep into spring.  The azalea bushes are bending under the weight of white, pink, and red blossoms; royal purple, butter yellow, and pale pink irises stand upright in garden beds; and the trees, seemingly overnight, have fully leafed out to lush green.  

With all that’s going wrong and awry in the world, I take pleasure and comfort in nature’s bounty of beauty.  Such beauty provides a respite and a bit of a release of tension.  May you also experience the glorious colors of spring!

READING

LOST IN THE MAINE WOODS

Heartwood by Amity Gaige

Author Gaige (theguardian.com)

In Heartwood, Nurse Valerie Gillis, 42, sets out to walk the Appalachian Trail to get her heart straight and to escape from too much death (think Covid.) She is afraid of the dark and gets lost after her new hiking friend Santo leaves the trail.  Her husband, Gregory, about whom she has mixed feelings, has been her support, meeting her at specific places with more food and supplies.

Lt. Bev, a Maine game warden, is the individual responsible for coordinating the search for Valerie.  She is experienced with an excellent track record for finding people.  Lena is a 76-year-old resident of Cedar-field, a CCRC in Connecticut, who spends hours online and misses Christine, her estranged daughterValerie reminds her of Christine.

The novel alternates between the perspectives of Bev, Lena, Santo, and Valerie.  Although lost, Valerie writes affectionate letters to her mother recalling the love she received in childhood and detailing her current situation.   Like Lena missing her daughter, Lt. Bev has complex issues with her own mother who is slowly dying. 

This is an intriguing and highly creative novel combining the strong presence of the natural world (woods and birds) with both the fragility and strength of human relationships.  Mothers play a key role here, but there is also sibling rivalry and affection. Keeping the reader on tenterhooks is the underlying suspense of the search.  Will Valerie be found alive or not? Highly recommended!

Amity Gaige is the author of four novels and teaches at Yale University.  Several years ago, I read and enjoyed Sea Wife, New York Times Notable Book of 2020. (~JWFarrington)

FOOTNOTE

For those who might be interested in other books featuring game wardens, try the mystery series by Paul Doiron.  Doiron, a former editor of Down East magazine, is the author of fifteen thrillers featuring Maine game warden Mike Bowditch.  The first, published in 2010 is The Poacher’s Son, and the most recent (2024) is Pitch Dark.

INTIMATE THEATER

Stop Kiss (Justice Theater Project, Raleigh)

Callie & Sara (justicetheaterproject.com)

Until recently, I firmly believed society had made significant progress in its treatment and acceptance of the LBGTQ community.  So much of that is being challenged now by this administration.

Stop Kiss, a play by Diana Son, was written in 1998 and first presented Off-Broadway.  The principals in this cast of five are Callie, a long-time New Yorker and traffic reporter, and Sara, a schoolteacher new to the city seeking life and adventure.  George, Callie’s former boyfriend, is a regular attendee in her life, one with occasional benefits.  Callie and Sara move slowly and tentatively into a relationship until a tragic attack.  

The play is fast paced and performed with no intermission.  Scenes are very short, only a few minutes of dialogue, followed by darkness and yet another set change. Some characters appear on floor level at the right or left with the stage behind.  One knows there has been an awful event, but not the particulars. The action moves from the past to the present and back again.  The suspense is in wondering what came after the attack or, what is the fate of Callie and Sara’s relationship.

I surmise that this play likely packed more of a punch and was perhaps shocking when it was performed in 1998.  I found it somewhat dated, but probably the message is still relevant and one that needs to be delivered again and again.  

Note: Unattributed photos and header photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) 

Carolina Comments: Art & Crime

LOOKING: MORE ANDREW WYETH

At Kuerner Farm: The Eye of the Earth (Winston Salem)

First Snow, Study for Groundhog Day, 1959

The Chief Penguin and I have seen many examples of Andrew Wyeth’s work over the decades, annually in Maine at the Farnsworth Museum and several visits to the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa.  Wyeth divided his time over his life between Pennsylvania where he grew up and the coast of Maine.  This exhibit at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art focuses on the farm neighboring the Wyeth’s property in Pennsylvania and includes some works never previously exhibited.   I liked all the angles in Grindstone, angles that contrast with the roundness of the stone almost outside the painting.

Grindstone, First Version, 1989

After his father’s death from a train collision in 1945, Andrew Wyeth became more aware of his mortality and was drawn to the cycles of life and death on the Kuerner Farm.  Karl Kuerner became a sort of surrogate father to him, and he painted both Karl and his wife, Anna, many times. 

Detail, The Kuerners, 1971

 The paintings in this exhibit are stark and muted, mainly in browns and white, and frequently depict the buildings and the landscape in snow.  Most are watercolors and a few are egg tempura.  The plaques describing each work are more detailed than in many museums and inform the viewer about Wyeth’s technique and offer more context for the image.  One late work is both realistic and fanciful as it depicts friends and others, alive and long gone, dancing around a maypole with colorful ribbons.

Detail, Snow Hill, 1989

It’s a thoughtful exhibit and is on view until May 25.  It then travels to the Brandywine River Museum outside Philadelphia and from there goes on view in Jacksonville, Florida, beginning in October.  

If you haven’t ever visited Reynolda House, it’s worth a trip.  The house was built in 1917, in American Country House style, for R.J. Reynolds and his wife Katharine.  The rooms are beautifully restored, and the walls feature a wide-ranging collection of both historic and more contemporary works by American artists.  In nice weather the formal gardens beckon.

WATCHING: CRIME IN LONDON

The Chelsea Detective Season 3 (Acorn)

Max and Layla (tellyvisions.org)

Quirky Detective Inspector Max Arnold lives on a houseboat and has an on-again off-again relationship with his ex-wife Astrid. He banters regularly with his well-meaning and somewhat interfering Aunt Olivia.  In Season 3, when he and Astrid decide to be just friends, he takes a stab at the dating scene with a horticulturist.

Max and his colleague DS Layla Walsh team up to solve murders in London’s affluent Chelsea district.  The murders are frequently unusual. What begins as a clearcut case becomes more complex with multiple suspects and sometimes international intrigue.  Chief Forensics Officer or pathologist, Ashley Wilton, rounds out the cast, and as a deaf actor is evidence of greater diversity in TV casting. 

Episodes are 90 minutes each and are being released weekly.  There are 4 episodes total in this season, and the Chief Penguin and I have enjoyed the first two.  Recommended!

Note: All unattributed photos by JWFarrington. Header photo of Fenced in, 2001, is one of the few Wyeth works with color, red on the horse’s blanket and on a distant barn.

Carolina Comments: Demonstrating, Reading, Eating

POLITICAL PROTEST

Hands Off!

Hands Off in Raleigh (L. Lawrence)

It has been gratifying whether personally or vicariously to experience the fabulous turnout in the many Hands Off protests across the country and around the world.  Family members and friends of ours participated in Greensboro, Raleigh, Philadelphia, Indiana, and D.C.  

In Greensboro
Greensboro

These demonstrations send a powerful visual message of anger and outrage over the brutal dismantling of the U.S. government and cavalier disregard for the rule of law.  May that message be received!

RECENT READING: RESILIENCE IN WARTIME

Author Hunter

One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter

Over the past decade, I’ve read quite a few historical novels about World War II.  Spies, undercover librarians, and brave ordinary people are featured.  Most of these novels are set in France, Eastern Europe, or Britain.  One Good Thing takes place in Italy from 1940-1944, initially near Bologna and Florence and ultimately in Rome. 

Lili and Esti became good friends at university and remained so when Esti married Niko and had her son, Theo.  Life was relatively good until the imposition of Mussolini’s Racial Laws targeting Jews.  When Germany invaded Italy, life became more dangerous for Jewish Lili.  With her friends involved in the Resistance, Lili is persuaded to join their effort and take a bunch of refugee children to hide out in a convent in Florence.  For her, this begins several years of upheaval, multiple moves, and dangerous encounters despite carrying a fake ID.

This is a novel not only of resilience, what individuals will risk when their freedom and livelihood are in peril, but a depiction of close friendship and extreme loyalty. It is both compelling and thrilling.  You will be there with Lili in her struggle to survive and find a safe place for the future.  Hunter, part of a family of Holocaust survivors, is also the author of the bestseller, We Were the Lucky Ones, now adapted as a series on Hulu.  Recommended! (~JWFarrington)

EATING OUT

Sushi-Thai Cary

Interior of Sushi-Thai

This combination Japanese and Thai restaurant is a short distance away in a strip mall behind a gas station.  It was recommended by friends.  We walked there and sampled several dishes from the Thai portion of the menu.  

Our first course was crispy shrimps in a blanket followed by pad Thai with chicken and spicy basil with chicken.  We requested medium spicy and found that this was probably hot enough for both of us.  The entrée portions were generous, and we ended up taking some home.  We’ll be back to try the other half of the menu!

Academy Street Bistro

Regular readers know we walk downtown often.  A favorite stop late in the day or for an early dinner is the Academy Street Bistro.  Several weeks ago, on the spur of the moment, I suggested we stop for a glass of wine.  I had pinot grigio, the Chief Penguin had an Old Fashioned, and we shared a tasty plate of fried calamari with peppadews.  The perfect way to celebrate an early spring day!

We had heard that the soup of the day on weekends is lobster bisque.  Thus, we had a mission, get there on the right day to sample it.  Yesterday we sat outside and dined early on small bowls of lobster bisque followed by ahi tuna for the CP and a large Caesar salad for me. Everything was good.  The day was warm, and there were few other people outside, making it preferable to the noisy, bustling inside dining room.

Carolina Comments: Reading & Eating

This week’s post brings together two recent novels, one contemporary and set in Maine, and the other a fictional account of the lives of Thomas Gainsborough’s two girls.  Also included are highlights of an elegant wine dinner.

LIFE IN & OUT OF PRISON

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

Wood (authorsunboundcom)

Maine author Monica Wood’s recent novel, How to Read a Book, is both heartwarming and heartfelt.  Violet, only 22, is one of a group of female inmates who meet weekly with Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher, known as the Book Lady.  Or more casually as Bookie.  These tough women approach books in a judgmental way and regularly attack the choices Harriet makes as she tries out different genres.  Violet is both more accepting and more articulate. 

Frank is a retired machinist and craftsman, the husband of the woman killed when Violet was driving.  He does odd jobs at a local bookstore where Harriet buys books for her group.  When released from prison, Violet is pretty much dumped in Portland, a long way from the mill town where she grew up.  Equipped with an apartment, she must find a job and make her way in the world of the Outs.  She visits the bookstore and sees Frank whom she recognizes from the courtroom.  How and why Violet, Harriet, and Frank become entangled in the outside world unfolds over the course of the novel.  Providing other perspectives are Harriet’s niece Sophie and Frank’s vengeful daughter Kristy.  

I found this a novel to treasure.  The chapters rotate among the principals and are told in Violet’s, Harriet’s, and Frank’s voices.  The novels and poetry that the book club reads provide links to the overall themes of right and wrong, acceptance and forgiveness.  Chief among them is Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.  This book of short verses (1916) consists of accounts of the lives of residents in the fictional small town of Spoon River.  I recall reading excerpts in high school.  

I liked the novel’s setting in Portland, a city I know somewhat, especially its inviting independent bookshop, Longfellow Books, here named Wadsworth.  How to Read a Book is a quick read, and an absorbing feel-good one!   (~JWFarrington)

ILLNESS AND LOVE ENTWINED

The Painter’s Daughters by Emily Howes

Howes (barnesbookfest.org)

Thomas Gainsborough was a prolific 18th century portrait painter—society dames, cultured and titled gentlemen, and very often his family.  He and his wife Margaret had two daughters, a year apart in age, Molly, the older of the two, and Peggy.  Gainsborough painted them when they were 5 and 6 and several more times over the years as they became fashionable young ladies.

Emily Howes’ The Painter’s Daughters, traces the two girls’ extremely close relationship into adulthood.  Peggy knows that there is something not quite right about Molly when she becomes vacant and disappears into her own thoughts.  Drilled by their mother to be well behaved and a credit to their father and his reputation in society, Peggy doesn’t talk about what she knows and invents ways to bring her sister back into line to appear normal and be safe.  

Their father sees Molly’s behavior, but doesn’t openly acknowledge it, while their mother is in fierce denial.  It’s a house of secrets, and this is just one of several that impacts how the family functions.  A move from tiny Ipswich to higher-toned Bath is designed to give the girls opportunities to make their debut in society and find wealthy husbands.  

Molly’s mental illness affects them all, and both daughters are ultimately bound by their love and care for each other and thwarted in their quest for fulfilling marriages.  Interwoven with their story is the backstory, hinted at, but not initially revealed, of Gainsborough’s wife Margaret.

The setting, this time and place, are meticulously and convincingly detailed.  I found the initial chapters a bit slow, but curiosity about how the sisters’ lives turned out and my interest in the craft of painting kept me engaged.  Overall, it’s a tender portrayal of sibling love and mental illness.  In her private life, Howes is a practicing psychotherapist.  Recommended for fans of historical fiction. (~JWFarrington)

DINING CHEZ NOUS

Spring Showcase Wine Dinner

One of the dining venues here serves a mix of pub fare and more elaborate even elegant entrees.  Several times a year, there’s an opportunity to sign up for a special menu with a different wine paired with each of five courses. This week was one of those times, and the focus was on local produce and lighter dishes for spring.

Asparagus starter

We began with white asparagus on a bed of green asparagus puree with some crisped prosciutto and accompanied appropriately by a rosé.

This was followed by mushroom agnolotti in an onion broth, then delicate duck breast with bok choy and radish, and a palate cleanser of pink pineapple infused with passionfruit, topped with jalapeno rings, cilantro leaves, and lime granita.  

Next up was a focus on cauliflower florets and cauliflower puree with seared scallops, and then finally a lemon butter cake with crème anglaise.  

Cauliflower with scallops

The dishes were elegant and delicious, and each wine nicely complemented its dish.  

Note: Header photo is The Painter’s Daughters Chasing a Butterfly (c.1756), (independent.co.uk.) Unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)