Maine Time: Reading Nonfiction & A Mystery

THREE RECENT READS

In this post, I offer three books I’ve read recently. One is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s conversational inside scoop on the 1960’s as experienced by her and by her spouse, Richard Goodwin, politico, speechwriter, and occasional sounding board for both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

Judith Jones was a book editor who received little acclaim in her professional life for the outsize role she played in bringing to the fore literary figures like Anne Tyler and sensing the market’s readiness for cookbooks by noted chefs such as Julia Child. Sara Franklin details her career.

Lastly, for a change of pace, a mystery with archaeological and mythical roots. Meet archaeologist Ruth Galloway, if you haven’t already, in one of this long series of mysteries by Elly Griffiths.

INSIDE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE 1960’S

An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960’s by Doris Kearns Goodwin (from my summer reading list)

When Dick Goodwin reaches 80, he and Doris, his wife, make a project for the weekends of going through his 300 boxes of speech drafts and memorabilia from his working life in the 1960’s. Dick Goodwin, a consummate wordsmith who worked with two presidents, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, was able to translate their distinctly different styles and cadences into memorable words.  

He traveled with JFK on the campaign trail in 1960.  He drafted noteworthy speeches for him and later for LBJ on civil rights, Latin American policy, and the like.  Politics was in his blood, and he was both ambitious and brash, resulting in the occasional clash that might have been career-ending.  Goodwin also developed a close friendship with Robert Kennedy, a relationship that bugged Johnson who had little love for RFK.

Looking back on events that took place fifty years ago, Kearns Goodwin shares their mutual recollections, their years of disagreement about Kennedy and Johnson, and how the passage of time softens bitter memories.  More than a decade younger than her husband, Kearns Goodwin was a White House Fellow who worked with Johnson somewhat when he was president.  After his presidency, she became especially close to him helping on his memoirs and on what became her first book.   

This work is a marvelous inside look at presidential and personal politics in that tumultuous and consequential decade, the 1960’s.  I, like many of my readers, came of age in high school and college during those years.  This trip back refreshed my memory about some monumental events and provided the messy back story behind others.  As Doris Kearns Goodwin and her husband review his voluminous files, she offers up recollections and details of her own experiences in a way that is conversational and very accessible.  I enjoyed too her portrait of a long and fruitful marriage.  Highly recommended!! (~JWFarrington)

NOTABLE KNOPF EDITOR

The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America by Sara Franklin

In her lifetime, Judith Jones was frequently overlooked, dismissed, or just tolerated by the male publishing heads for whom she worked.  Even publisher Blanche Knopf initially had Judith doing her scut work and only reluctantly let loose the apron strings.  To her credit, Jones rescued The Diary of Anne Frank from the reject pile, edited Anne Tyler and John Updike’s works for decades, and both discovered, mentored, and guided chefs and cooks the likes of Julia Child, Claudia Rosen, Marcella Hazan, and Edna Lewis from recipes on paper to finely wrought noteworthy cookbooks.  

Jones was both a traditionalist and a maverick.  She was deemed “a lady” and she wanted marriage and children.  At the same time, she discovered that besides her early love for poetry, she was passionate about food and cooking.  To her dismay, she and husband Dick Jones never had children, but to her delight they routinely cooked together and explored new ingredients and new recipes.  She found her métier in the publishing world and worked extremely hard; in fact, she became the primary breadwinner.  Jones also developed relationships with many of her authors that went beyond the professional to genuine friendships.  These were life-enriching for her and Dick.

As someone interested in both publishing and food, I was engrossed in Judith Jones’ story.  I came of age and married in 1970; Franklin’s account of the cookbook authors Judith worked with was, for me, a walk down memory lane.  I was in my first post-college job when Mastering the Art of French Cooking, volume 2, was published.  My librarian colleagues were ordering copies and wondered if I wanted to buy one also.  I assented, and quickly, some of Julia’s recipes became household favorites: her elaborate beef bourguignon and Potage Magali, a tomato rice soup with a hint of saffron, to name just two. 

Later, I put Marcella Hazan’s Italian cookbooks to hard use, and Madhur Jaffrey’s Invitation to Indian Cooking became a must purchase after an Indian cooking class.  Other additions to my cookbook library included A Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis and later books by Julia Child and Jacques Pepin.   Jones was on the scene at the right time as cooking and food in the U.S. expanded to other cultures.  She very successfully translated the recipes of these talented chefs for the home kitchen.   Recommended! (~JWFarrington)

ARCHAEOLOGICAL MYSTERY

The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths

For a change of pace, I picked up The Night Hawks, a recent entry in Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway Series.  A few years ago, I read the first book in the series, The Crossing Places, and liked it enough to acquire and read the second one.  This is #13 and I really enjoyed it, racing through it in the space of 24 hours! The Ruth Galloway series runs to fifteen books, and Griffiths has said that #15 is the last one she plans to write.

Ruth Galloway is an archaeologist living and working in Norfolk, England.  When bodies or strange bones are found by the local police, DCI Nelson calls her in to consult.  In this book, a Bronze Age body washes ashore which attracts the interest of the local amateur metal detector group known as the Night Hawks.  Subsequently, there is what appears to be a murder-suicide at a very remote country farm.  Add in a local myth/folk tale about a huge black dog who is a harbinger of death, and it’s a complex case with numerous strands to untangle.  

While The Night Hawks is a mystery, the principal characters, Ruth, Nelson, and others, are well-developed and intriguing. The relationships between them evolve as the series proceeds, adding to the satisfaction of a story well told.  Recommended!

Note: Header photo taken at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens by JWFarrington.