Maine Musings: Books & Binges

Recent Reading

I just finished reading The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power by Kim Ghattas.  It is a fascinating and nuanced account of American diplomacy as seen through the lens of a BBC correspondent. Ghattas, a native of Lebanon, was part of the press corps traveling the world with Clinton.  With her other-than-American perspective, she provides a rich and detailed discussion of the subtleties of U.S. relations with various countries and, what one might call a primer, on the context and rules of engagement as put forth and practiced by the Clinton/Obama team.

Ghattas by Dina Debbas
Ghattas by Dina Debbas

Ghattas also shares the more mundane but, to a reader, intriguing details about the briefing books and the meticulous planning that goes into every international trip, what it’s like to travel on Hillary’s plane, and how Clinton interacts with the press corps. You see glimpses of Clinton that the general public doesn’t.  I came away with a renewed appreciation for Clinton’s intellect and savvy and her belief in striving for personal engagement with the leaders of every country and with their citizenry.  What she called “smart power.”

 

 

I wanted and expected to like Michelle Huneven’s newest novel, Off Course, but was somewhat disappointed. I thought Blame, an earlier work, was powerful, startling, and very well written. Off Course is the story of a young woman who goes to her parents’ cabin in the Sierra Nevadas ostensibly to write her economics dissertation.  Instead Cress spends most of her time and her mental energy on sexual affairs, the first one something of a toss-off with a much older man, the second one an affair that grows in intensity and takes over her life.

Huneven  from www.kcrw.com
Huneven from www.kcrw.com

 

Huneven’s writing is both sharp and picturesque delineating the changes of the seasons as time passes and the affair limps along.  At about one-third of the way in (more than a hundred pages), I found myself more engaged with Cress and her friends in the community and my reading pace picked up.  Overall, I was not  enthralled unlike the reviewers in the book blurbs.

 

 

 

 

 

Binging When It Rains

We had several days of rainy weather not conducive to sitting in the yard gazing at the day lilies. Fortunately, we discovered Redbox. I’m guessing that we were among the small group of the uninformed, but thanks to Googling video rentals, we located two Redbox kiosks in our area. Quite an amazing advance. A big red metal box, like a  soda vending machine, up against the side of the Hannaford supermarket with an auxiliary skinnier red box next to it. It works like an ATM; you swipe your credit card, scroll through the screens to choose a movie, and soon a DVD pops out of a slot to your right, in a red case, of course. The rental cost—a mere $1.58 for return by 9 pm the next night!

So, what did we watch? At that price, you can be indiscriminate in your choices:

Woman in Gold. Unlike the critics, we liked this film a lot. Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann is great and, while you know or can guess the outcome, this true story of recovering art seized by the Nazis is absorbing, partly because Mrs. Altmann’s youth and marriage are depicted in flashbacks.

Still Alice. I read Lisa Genova’s novel of the same name when it came out and found it moving and painful. I resisted seeing the movie until now. Julianne Moore’s depiction of neuroscience professor Alice descending into Alzheimer’s is a marvelous feat of acting, but is still painful to watch. Not for an evening of popcorn and light entertainment.

My Old Lady. This is a somewhat strange film about an older American who has inherited his father’s apartment in Paris. Except that it is a “viager” and comes with an elderly lady who has the continued right to live there. Kevin Kline plays the hapless, aimless man and Maggie Smith is his tenant. Maggie Smith is Maggie Smith and thus, makes the film better than it might have been. I wouldn’t rush right out to rent it, but we did watch it all the way to the end.

 

Maine Musings: Food, Film & Finch

After the intensely bright hot Florida sun, mid-coast Maine’s gray skies, cool temperatures, and spotty rain showers yesterday were a relief. Portland on Friday before the cloud cover was weakly warm with enough sun to say summertime. Thanks to my cousins, we visited the iconic Portland Head Light for the first time after lunching at the Good Table in Cape Elizabeth.

Later we meandered the cobblestone streets of Portland’s Old Port browsing in familiar and new shops from the Paper Patch to Abacus to Sherman’s Books, all the while hearing in the background the screechy honk of the ever present seagulls.  I know there are seagulls on other shores, but they always seem particularly present here.

PORTLAND DINING

Dining in Portland was also a taste treat! The restaurant scene has expanded, and the city has been featured in every food magazine I know. We enjoyed dinner and the ambience at Vignola one night and had a superb meal the next in the back room known as David’s Opus Ten.  Plain David’s, the front of house, was crowded and noisy so we were glad we had opted for the small back space with its short menu of small plates. Especially noteworthy were the butter poached lobster on a crispy risotto cake, the tuna tartare, and the Serrano ham and manchego cheese plate with mellow warm black olives.

AT THE MOVIES

Earlier in the week, we went to see “Testament of Youth.” This new film, based on Vera Brittain’s 1933 memoir of the same name, is a grim and unvarnished depiction of the horrors of war, in this case WWI.  Some of you may recall that Masterpiece Theater did an adaptation of this work some years ago.

The film draws a stark contrast between the exuberance of youth and young love in the green English countryside and at university before the war, followed by the dirty gray and brown of death and destruction on the battlefield in France. Brittain left university to sign on as a volunteer nurse. This was a romantic, idealistic time and I don’t believe as many youths today see war as quite the adventure these men did.

WHAT I’M READING

Of course, I had to read Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman. I read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school (haven’t re-read it, I regret to report) and saw the film so for me Gregory Peck will forever be Atticus Finch. That said, Watchman is a worthwhile read. The writing is enjoyable, there are some touches of humor,and one gets a different picture of Maycomb, Alabama.  I found it to be a coming of age story for Jean Louise (aka Scout). At 26, one might say she is a bit old, after having lived in New York for seven years, to become disillusioned with her father, but so be it.  Other than that, she is quite believable and carries the book. Henry, her putative fiancé, is a bit flat.  Calpurnia, their servant, is a warm and sympathetic character while her uncle Jack, an eccentric doctor, provides counterpoint to her father. Atticus is here, but is no longer the perfect man and perhaps as a segregationist more realistic for the times.

Note that there are no photos this time due to a less reliable Wifi signal which I hope gets better!

 

Tidy Tidbits: Guthrie, Wilson & Itani

It is high summer in Florida and that means temperatures of 90 to 92 every day with overnight lows never below 75.  For some of us, like me, that means more time inside; for the lizards among us, it’s great for basking, or baking, in the sun.  So I strive to take advantage of the smaller crowds with movies and museum visits, trips to the theater, and sampling new restaurants.  This past week we did nearly all of these.

FOLKSY AMERICANA

 

On Tuesday, we saw the traveling musical, Woody Sez:  The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie.”  The play opened in Edinburgh in 2007 and actually has been performed more often in Europe than in the U.S.  It is more like a concert with lots of narrative of Woody’s life using Guthrie’s own words.  Four actors comprise the cast with a whole host of musical instruments from guitar to banjo to mandolin to harmonica and more.  I found it a bit slow initially, but then I was captured by the music and the story of Woody’s rambling and roving life, full of social protest and a desire to record the hardship and determination of the farmers and workers of the Dust Bowl era.  The key to its success is its sparkling, loose-limbed star, creator and director, David Lutken.  It is clear he is convinced of the importance of Guthrie’s legacy.  For an interview with Mr. Lutken, see:  http://onmilwaukee.com/ent/articles/woodysez.html

 

AT THE MOVIES

Woody Guthrie shone a spotlight on hard times and harsh conditions with his music.  Brian Wilson’s musical creativity set him apart, but personal demons, seeming madness, and unappreciative relatives and friends kept him from being fully recognized for that talent.  Love and Mercy, based on Wilson’s life, uses two actors to portray him, Paul Dano as the young musician and songwriter, and John Cusack as the middle-aged Brian under guard and coping with illness and bad choices.  Paul Giamatti plays a very convincing manipulative doctor and Elizabeth Banks is Melinda, a beautiful savior.  There are a few slow points, but overall it’s an absorbing, albeit not happy, film.  And for fans of the 60’s and the Beach Boys, packed with their songs.

INTERNMENT:  WHAT I’M READING

I was not aware that the Canadian government had also put individuals of Japanese descent into camps during WWII. But they did, some 21,000 of them.  Frances Itani has written a meditative novel Requiem, about an artist’s experience as a young boy in one of these camps.  It is 1997 and artist Bin is driving across Canada from Toronto to visit family on the west coast.  His wife died recently and he spends the drive reflecting on their life together, his boyhood and his son Greg’s upbringing.  It is a novel of relationships—fathers and sons and husbands and wives—looking back in time.  Itani has said that she enjoys researching her books and she spent six years reading source material and interviewing people before writing this. I also learned that her husband spent part of his childhood in a camp which answered my question about whether she had any personal connection with these events.

Tidy Tidbits: Spies, Tribes & Trills

AT THE MOVIES

“Madcap,” ” hilarious” and “fun” are all terms I’d use to describe just released espionage comedy, SpyThe women are at the top of their game—mostly—and there is plenty of foreign intrigue and too many bodies getting shot to count.  The wonderful cast is led by Melissa McCarthy as Susan Cooper, a basement CIA analyst who inveigles her way into the field, supported by a tough deputy CIA director, Alison Janney (think CJ on West Wing,) and colleague and agent, Miranda Hart, better known to many viewers as Chummie in Call the Midwife.  Rose Byrne plays the prime target while the distaff side is represented by Jude Law and Jason Statham.  It’s perfect summer fare.

NOVEL DELIGHT

Heaps of laudatory adjectives, “enthralling, exhilarating, arresting, fiercely intelligent, steamy, compelling” have been applied to Lily King’s novel, Euphoria, and perhaps that’s why I had avoided reading it until now.  But read it I did and found it pretty much lived up to the praise.  And what a vivid cover and enticing title!  Using Margaret Mead, Reo Fortune, and Gregory Bateson’s time in the field in New Guinea in 1932 as a jumping off point, King has created a novel that celebrates anthropology (the title refers to a certain pleasure in the work), raises questions about the methods and motives used to study the primitive tribes there, and sharply delineates the amalgam of professional competition and jealousy, sexual tension, and friendship that unites and divides this talented trio.

The Mead character, Nell Stone, is married to Schuyler Fenwick, known as Fen, but is strongly attracted to Blankson, the younger anthropologist modeled on Bateson, and he to her.  The point of view shifts from the narrative third person to Blankson recalling events retrospectively to passages from Nell’s field notebooks.  It is worth remembering that these are characters and the story here is not real life.  Euphoria was selected as one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year, 2014.  Definitely recommend it!

As for Lily King, I was not familiar with her work, but have since learned she lives in Yarmouth, Maine and has written four novels, each of which has been cited for some award or other.  Here’s an interview with her from the Boston Globe.  Now I need to go back and find her earlier books.

SAVORING SARASOTA

The snow birds have gone home, the spring vacationers have departed the beach and traffic is down to a trickle.  But, for those of us still here, June abounds with delights both culinary and musical.  For two weeks, many Sarasota restaurants participate in Savor Sarasota Restaurant Week and offer three-course lunch and dinner menus at $15 and $29 respectively. These are seriously good deals!

We enjoyed lunch at Louie’s Modern (trendy cuisine such as kale salad with grilled salmon) and dinners at Bjou Café (scrumptious shrimp and crab bisque to start!) and Miguel’s (traditional fare with a French accent including plump snails in a gruyere cream sauce).  I’ve been impressed each meal with both the menu choices and the portion sizes—no stinting on quality or quantity.

Also in June, young musicians from conservatories across the country (who’ve competed for one of the coveted 60 slots) come to Sarasota.  They take part in master classes with noted musicians and performers and together present a series of public concerts of chamber and symphonic works.  All under the aegis of the Sarasota Orchestra.  We have been to one chamber concert already and are gearing up for two more.  Especially memorable was flutist Carol Wincenc’s performance last Friday evening.