Category: Books

SARASOTA ORCHESTRA MASTERWORKS CONCERT

The Sarasota Orchestra was in fine form last evening under the baton of new music director Bramwell Tovey.  Maestro Tovey is a Grammy award-winning conductor and principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra.   The program included lesser-known works by Richard Strauss and Samuel Coleridge -Taylor plus a lovely violin concerto by Mendelssohn played by guest artist Timothy Chooi.  Rounding out the evening was a selection from Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe.  I thought the orchestra played superbly but wished that Maestro Tovey had been much briefer in his comments before several pieces.

DINING FIND

481 Gourmet

Located in Sarasota’s Rosemary District and sharing a patio with Rosemary & Thyme, 481 Gourmet is a great addition to the neighborhood.  We were a few minutes early for our pre-concert dinner, were warmly welcomed by the hostess, and seated at a table in the center of the dining room (outdoor tables were all reserved).  The dining room is handsome with deep gray walls and dark wood tables and bar.  

We were the first diners inside, and our waiter, Chris, enthusiastically greeted us.  Next another staff member walked by, smiled, and said hello.  Later, the owner herself came over to apologize for any confusion over the no longer offered pre-theater menu.  All this before we’d ordered any food!  We felt like celebrities.

As for the meal itself, the food was delicious. The three of us each had a Caesar salad followed by jumbo scallops, lamb chops, and grilled halibut as our entrees.  The scallops were over risotto, the lamb chops sat on a puddle of pesto, and the halibut was on a bed of couscous with tomato confit on top.  The Caesar salad was the perfect size with croutons and a lacy Parmesan tuile.  Prices are moderate to less moderate, but reflective of today’s food prices and staffing challenges.  Worth a return visit!

EXPANSIVE FRENCH NOVEL

Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin

Translated into over thirty languages and the bestselling novel in 2020 in Italy, Fresh Water for Flowers is the first novel by Perrin to be translated into English.  Set in France, mostly in a cemetery, it is a book with many characters, some living and some dead.  Primary is Violette, a still youngish woman whose life we follow from her days as a level-crossing keeper at a train junction to her work as a cemetery caretaker.  

When we first meet her, Violette is alone, her husband Touissant having long since disappeared.  She is friendly with the grave diggers, the priest, and the funeral director and spends her time observing and comforting the families of the deceased who come to bury and later mourn their loved ones.  She has her routine, and she keeps a notebook of the particulars of each new cemetery resident including the weather on the day of the funeral and how many mourners were present.  She gets to know and see again and again a select subgroup of these relatives.  When detective Julien Seul arrives to scatter his mother’s ashes on a stranger’s grave, Violette’s life becomes unsettled and entangled with his in ways she never imagined. 

The novel moves back and forth and around in time, in anything but linear fashion, as Violette’s past is revealed and bits of her childhood as a foster child meted out.  Struck by tragedy, Touissant and Violette separately seek answers to why the event occurred.  Other people’s lives are presented and probed, and diaries reveal secrets long kept.  From a woman who has more than her share of troubles to one who finally realizes she has the will and the right to be happy, Violette evolves into a whole person.  

This novel is rich in its depiction of friendship (Violette and Sasha, Violette and Celia) and ultimately, of love.  A long read, it pulls you in and weaves a spell.  Highly recommended!  (~JWFarrington) 

Note: Header photo and restaurant photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).