Category: Books

Tidy Tidbits: Diversions

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TO GO OR NOT TO GO?

This was the week that was and that was the question.  To go, or not to go.  So, this week we went.  We went to see a play and the theater was about two-thirds full.  Then we debated going to our regular orchestra concert with friends and decided to just do it.  It was a wonderful concert (more about that later), and we were pleased that there were empty seats on either side of us and empty ones in front.  Overall, the hall was only about a third full, and in the lobby, folks were standing farther apart than usual and there just weren’t as many people.  The rest room was somewhat empty, but I noted that every woman took longer to wash her hands, practicing thorough scrubbing and at least two rounds of “Happy Birthday.”

CULTURE COMMENTS

(source: Sarastomagazine.com)

The play, Into the Breeches!, takes place in 1942 and involves a group of local women putting on Shakespeare’s Henry plays while their men are off at war.  The women play the men’s roles in this comedy, and there is one hilarious scene where they practice their manly walks with appropriate appendages.  Overall, I found it enjoyable, but not my favorite. There are some more serious moments around the issues of race and sexual orientation which give it punch.   Sadly, for our local audience, the remainder of the performances have been cancelled.

The Sarasota Orchestra is hosting eight guest conductors this season as part of its recruitment process for a new music director.  Friends and I went to a morning interview and concert preview with Keith Lockhart, conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, and then to the concert that evening.  Titled “Beethoven and Bartok,” it included Beethoven’s lovely fourth piano concerto along with Bartok’s last work, Concerto for Orchestra, considered by many to be his best one.  Despite the small audience, the orchestra’s playing was bright and energetic and Lockhart a fluid conductor whose remarks to the audience before the Bartok added to the richness of the experience.  Alas, that was the only performance; the Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances have all been cancelled.

COCOONING

With COVID-19 looming large, our area, like so many, is closing down.  Museums, schools, theaters, and libraries are all shutting their doors and cancelling events for the next several weeks at least.  We cancelled a trip to Pennsylvania and are monitoring the situation regarding both domestic and international travel in the months ahead.  So, what to do?

I think many of us will be reading more, watching more on our home screens, and walking.  Here, we have dog walkers, those who saunter, those who power walk, and a few runners.  If I am out on the boulevard, I have a very good chance of encountering one or more of my neighbors for chit-chat.  That’s a good thing and most welcome. 

CURRENT READING

These are both books in progress. I will finish the mystery this weekend.  Both relate to Ireland.

The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan

This is a crime novel set in Galway, Ireland and is the first by this author.  A young man dies by his own hand, or so it seems.  Detective Cormac Reilly is assigned to a 20-year old cold case that is connected to the current possible murder. He was the rookie detective on the old case and met the young man who just died, Jack, when he was five years old. The characters are intriguing and I’m curious to know how Jack’s girlfriend, Aisling, and his long-lost sister, Maude, are interconnected with the events of twenty years ago.  McTiernan’s website states that this book has been optioned for TV and that she has written two other novels with this detective.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

I have just begun this nonfiction work which was on several 10 best lists last year.  It’s about The Troubles and one reviewer said it read like a novel.  So far, it’s dense with detail, but I will get back to it once I complete the mystery above.

Note: Keefe photo from newyorker.com Cover photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Sarasota Scene: Theater, etc.

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CURRENT THEATER

This past week we enjoyed two plays at our own Asolo Repertory Theatre.  The Lifespan of a Fact is a witty and fast paced 80 minutes of discussion, argument, and negotiation between a young magazine fact checker, a noted author, and the magazine editor.  It’s based on real events.  Since our son was a fact checker at The New Yorker early in his career, this play appealed to us.  As always, the staging was creative and the acting excellent.

We also went to Murder on the Orient Express, probably Agatha Christie’s most performed work since it has had life as a film and a TV series as well as a stage play.  The Asolo makes all its own sets and even constructs sets on commission for cruise lines and other theaters.  The revolving train set for this performance is simply amazing!  On one side a dining car, on another several staterooms and on another more seating.  Combine that with the use of projection and sound effects and you almost feel you are on a real train.  Two of our favorite actors, Asolo regulars Peggy Roeder and David Brietbarth, also have roles.

DINING ON LONGBOAT KEY

We had dined at Shore LBK during its soft opening some months ago and decided to brave the traffic during “Season” and take our friends.  We and they were delighted with the meal we had and with the water view!  Yes, Shore is large and loud, but both the service (our waitress had a nice sense of humor) and the food were superb.  Two of us ordered the red snapper over arancini cake and spinach, and the other two tucked into the ribs and the swordfish.  Our reservation was for 5:30 pm and, while early, this was good since as we neared the end of the meal, the dining room was busier and noisier.  

RECENT READING—Historical Fiction

The Last train to London by Meg Waite Clayton

(Sfexaminer.com)

In high school, I never cared much for history and managed to go through college without taking any history courses.  As an adult, I’ve become a fan of good historical fiction and have learned some history and gained insights into events through the experiences of fictional characters.  Ms. Clayton is not an author I had previously encountered despite her having written a number of noted novels.  

I found this novel about the Kindertransport of mostly Jewish children out of Nazi Europe to England especially compelling.  Clayton has two parallel narratives going that eventually intersect.  In 1936 Vienna, writer Stephan Neuman is the privileged teenaged son of a wealthy chocolate family.  They are Jewish. He becomes friends with Zofie-Helene Perger, a mathematically brilliant Christian girl whose mother is the editor of an anti-Nazi newspaper.  Each of them has a much younger sibling, he, his brother Walter (who has a beloved stuffed rabbit named Peter), and she, her sister Johanna.  When new laws against Jews are enacted, the young people can no longer meet.  

Simultaneously, Truus Wijsmuller-Meijer lives in Amsterdam with her husband Joop and has already begun dangerous clandestine expeditions to Germany to bring young children to Holland.  They have no children of their own due to her several miscarriages, a fact that weighs heavily on them.  How the lives of the three principals unfold and how they all end up on a train together is both emotionally wrenching and intellectually satisfying.  Truus was a real person who indeed brought six hundred children out of Germany to England plus more.  She became known as Tante (Aunt) Truus.

The novel is written in short chapters with very descriptive titles that alternate focusing on Stephan, Zofe, and Truus.  They read somewhat like vignettes, capturing a particular moment in time that moves each one’s story forward; yet they are done with a light, matter of fact touch, even though the conditions and events being described are often horrific.  It’s a novel of courage and love midst great danger. I am now motivated to read some of Clayton’s other novels.  (~JWFarrington) 

Tidy Tidbits: Literature & Music

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RECENT READING

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

(www.annpatchett.com)

I thoroughly enjoyed Patchett’s new novel about two siblings, Maeve, and her younger by seven years brother, Danny.  Set in the Philadelphia suburbs and New York, it takes place over many decades.  This brother and sister are linked together, joined at the hip one might say, by the house they lived in for some of their childhood.  Deserted by their mother who leaves them to help the poor in India, their father eventually marries Andrea, a younger woman with two daughters.  Andrea loves the house, takes it over, and after their father’s untimely death, puts Maeve and Danny out.  

Bereft and neglected, they live briefly in Maeve’s cramped space until Danny goes to boarding school.  Over the years that follow, they drive to their old house, the grand Dutch house, and sit parked outside in the car.  There they re-live and re-visit their mother’s abandonment along with Andrea’s mistreatment. Maeve never marries, Danny does, but Maeve holds primacy in his life and his emotions over Celeste, his wife.

What happens when Danny and Maeve reach middle age and their mother re-appears raises issues of forgiveness, compassion, bitterness and disappointment.  Danny narrates their story, and he and Maeve are richly drawn characters.  Anyone who has left a beloved house behind will identify with their lingering memories.

 This novel makes a nice pairing with Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane.  In each case, a young person experiences a childhood trauma, be it a horrible tragedy or a major loss, and that event follows and, to an extent, haunts the rest of the person’s life.  Being able to come to a reckoning of what happened and move forward and beyond it brings acceptance.  Both Danny here and Peter in Keane’s novel achieve peace with the past. (~JWFarrington)

POLITICAL MEMOIR

The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power

(twitter.com)

If you’re a political junkie, then you will enjoy reading Powers’ detailed account of her time as a White House advisor to President Obama and then later as the US representative to the United Nations.  If, like me, you resonate with the life stories of accomplished and intelligent women, then you will find Powers’ personal story engrossing and fascinating.  As a child she emigrated with her mother from Ireland to this country and then spent the early part of her career as a journalist and reporter in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones.  She never anticipated that she’d work in government, but her positions on Obama’s team have been the most meaningful of her career.  

At the time she began work in the White House, she was newly married and soon juggling the demands of one and then two young children.  Generous in praise of her colleagues, forthcoming about her own shortcomings and mistakes, candid about what she learns about the roles and limitations of government, Ms. Powers’ memoir is engaging, compelling, and a worthwhile read.  (~JWFarrington)

FABULOUS CONCERT

This season the Sarasota Orchestra is hosting a series of guest conductors, part of its search for a new music director to succeed Anu Tali.  This week Bramwell Tovey, principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, led our local musicians in an ambitious and most enjoyable concert.  From the opening notes of Berlioz’s Overture to Rob Roy, the playing was crisp and energetic; it continued that way through the entire concert.  Guest soloists, Simone Porter on violin and Joshua Roman on cello, presented a spirited rendition of Brahms’ Concerto in A Minor.  I found the Andante movement especially lovely.  Before conducting William Walton’s Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Maestro Tovey combined British wit and verve to give the audience a bit of history about Walton along with suggestions on what to listen for in the four movements.  This was a tour de force of a concert!

CELEBRATING HOUSE GUESTS

We had a week of company beginning with our son and wife and their two girls followed by my niece from Raleigh, North Carolina.  These were lively days marked by tasty meals, time in the pool, some great conversation, blueberry pancakes with Grandma, a dollhouse, blocks and Calico Critters for added diversion and, lastly, an early birthday celebration for almost 4-year old, Frances.  The heart-shaped cake, iced with pink frosting, of course, and decorated with berries, was made by Grandpa and a big hit!  And not just with the birthday girl!

Note: Header photo is of a sea grape leaf at Robinson Preserve. It and the cake photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Tidy Tidbits: Food for Mind & Body

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RECENT READING

Gripping Nonfiction

American Fire:  Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse

The Eastern Shore of Virginia is a forgotten land of lost hopes and limited opportunity.  The small towns in Accomack County are off the beaten path and poverty and struggle are the norm for many.  What brings people together and is the center for socializing is the firehouse.  Dedicated volunteers leap to answer the call and in the long months from late 2013 into 2014, the calls to fires were numerous and almost always to abandoned buildings.  Over about five months, more than 86 fires were started in and around Accomack and required volunteer firefighters from all the departments in the region.  

After an initial article about the fires, Washington Post feature writer Monica Hesse went to Accomack to research and write about why and how the fires occurred and who was responsible.  It’s a fact that arsonists are often volunteer firefighters, but this perpetrator, Charlie Smith, went undiscovered for a long time.  And what was surprising was that he had an accomplice, a female.  The resulting book is a captivating and vivid suspense story.  You know who dun it early on but exploring how all the experts got there is fascinating.  (~JWFarrington) 

ON THE SMALL SCREEN

Inspector Vivaldi Mysteries (Amazon Prime)

(from MHzChoice)

Just when I was wondering what to watch next, my friend Patricia came to the rescue with a great recommendation.  This Italian series from 2005 is marvelous.  It’s set in Trieste and Frederico Vivaldi is a police detective whose son Stefano is also a policeman.  When a young woman is found dead after a lively beach party, Vivaldi has his son re-assigned to the team working to solve the mystery.  Vivaldi is estranged from his wife, Laura, and is unaware that his son is gay.  How he learns about his son becomes tangled up with the murder case.  Although the production quality is grainy by today’s standards, the characters are engaging and complex and, so far, the series is as much about their relationships as it is about the police work.    

BREAKFAST OUT

Mocha Joe’s Cafe

If you’re looking for a casual place for breakfast in Bradenton, Mocha Joe’s could be your answer.  A small café on Cortez Road West, Mocha Joe’s is popular, for sure with the breakfast crowd, and maybe later also.  We met friends there and were pleased with the wide selection of eggs, pancakes, and omelets.  Several of us ordered lightly, but one person sampled eggs and toast with sides and was most pleased.  It’s tucked in a shopping mall, but definitely worth a try for either meal as the lunch menu of burgers and sandwiches also looks tempting.

Note: Header image of fire in eastern Virginia by Jay Diem, AP.