Maine Musings: Reading & More

Here are two books I read recently. One is literary fiction by an author I know from previous works. The other is a romance which is clever, humorous, and just fun. The Chief Penguin and I also made our second visit to the botanical garden this week, so I offer a few comments on it and their new sculptures.

WAR’S AFTERMATH: GRITTY, TRAUMATIC, ISOLATING

Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips (my summer list)

Author Phillips (nytimes.com)

Jayne Anne Phillips won the Pulitzer Prize for Night Watch, a post Civil War novel set in West Virginia.  The events take place in 1864 and 1874 as various chapters focus on different characters.  Principals are 12-year-old ConaLee who ministers to her catatonic mother, Eliza; Dearbhla, their older neighbor and sometime protector; and Night Watch, a partially sighted employee of an insane institution.  Earlier chapters depict The Sharpshooter midst the horror and gruesomeness of battle in 1864.  

Abused and controlled by Papa, a drifter who moved in them and took over, ConaLee and Eliza are deposited at an insane asylum where they beg shelter.  Here, Eliza masquerades as Miss Janet and ConaLee as her maid.  Gradually, they adapt and know and become known by Night Watch, Weed, a boy who hangs around, and Dr. Story, head of the asylum.

This graphic complex novel, based in part at a historical institution, deals with poverty, the trauma of war, and loss, the loss of tangible property, the loss of loved ones, and the loss of personal identity.  Who am I really?  Or if I know my name, what is my role or place in this now war-ravaged world?  

Initially, I found this novel challenging.  The battle in the wilderness section was especially hard reading and, for me, lacking in enough concrete details.  I set the book aside for a few days, and then, re-engaging, found it to be found it rewarding and hopeful.  Phillips also wrote Quiet Dell and Lark and Termite, novels I read for book group discussions. Recommended! (~JWFarrington) 

MEETING YOUR PERFECT MATCH

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren

Romance novels are big sellers these days; it’s a hot genre.  Even the once staid New York Times Book Review now has a monthly romance column.  

While browsing fiction in one of my favorite independent bookstores, I kept encountering tags protruding from various shelves.  Each read something like, “Looking for Romance, try [name of an author.]” Being curious, I followed a few of the leads and ended up near Christina Lauren’s books, an author unknown to me.  It turns out Lauren is the pen name of two women, one named Christina and the other Lauren, and they have published several highly praised titles.  

The Soulmate Equation is funny and fun. On a whim, statistician Jessica Davis submits a DNA sample to a new firm, GeneticAlly. They claim to find and match you with the best person based on certain of your genetic characteristics.  A single parent of 7-year-old Juno, Jess is mainly focused on being a good mother and staying financially solvent.  When her test results show she has a 98 percent compatibility match with Dr. River Pena, the company founder, an aloof and arrogant man, she is decidedly not interested.  How their story unfolds despite their seemingly disparate personalities and lifestyles is witty, swoon worthy, and heartwarming.  This is one for the beach!

GORGEOUS BLOOMS

COASTAL MAINE BOTANICAL GARDENS

Pink dahlias

Our time in Maine would not be complete without several visits to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay.  Opened in 2007 and now in its 18th season, the gardens cover 300 acres with some shoreline along Back River.  It’s the largest garden complex in New England and a top attraction in Maine.  Each year, there are new flowers to see, new areas have been planted, and this year, new signs enhance wayfinding.  This week, the dahlias were especially lovely.

Fiddlehead fern metal sculpture

The gardens also feature works of sculpture, some on loan and others more permanent installations. Besides the giant wood trolls installed several years ago, two fiddlehead fern metal sculptures adorn one area.  These were created by Shane Perley-Dutcher. Perley-Dutcher is a mixed media artist from the First Tobique Nation in New Brunswick. Copper in color, with the metal partly woven like a basket (echoing the work of Wabanaki weavers), these pieces are a great addition. They stick up above the greenery to be viewed from a distance (see header photo) and can be seen up close.  You can also sit inside the fern! 

Note: All unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

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)

Richard Goodwin (politico.com)

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

Judith Jones in the kitchen (nytimes.com)

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

Author Griffiths (thebookseller.com)

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.

Maine Moments: Wyeth Family Art

FARNSWORTH ART MUSEUM: PART 2

Three Generations of Wyeths

The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland is a center, along with the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa., for the artwork of three generations of Wyeths.  A former church building houses almost exclusively Wyeth paintings and sculptures, while the contemporary building has a variety of different exhibits, often one highlighting one Wyeth or another.   

The featured exhibit this year is Jamie Wyeth Unsettled.  It’s a collection of his eerie, sometimes spooky, and outright ghoulish paintings from several decades.  I didn’t love this exhibit. Some images I found too graphic and very disturbing, but I’m including a few works I did appreciate.  

There’s also a small exhibit of abstract watercolors by Andrew Wyeth, father of Jamie and probably the most famous of the Wyeth threesome.

N. C. WYETH

In a separate exhibit of works associated with Maine, I was struck by an action-filled painting by the first Wyeth, Newell Convers, known as N. C.  He lived from 1882-1945 and was both a painter and an illustrator.  He illustrated a series of Scribner’s classics, and he is likely best known for that work.  Born, raised, and educated in art in Massachusetts, Wyeth then moved to Chadds Ford where he made his lifelong home.  

Cleaning Fish, N. C. Wyeth, 1933

There is so much suggested motion in this Port Clyde painting with the flock of birds surrounding the fisherman while he calmly guts the fish. I also like the soft light and the almost pastel colors.

JAMIE WYETH: HAUNTED, SUPERNATURAL, STRANGE

Julia on the Swing, J. Wyeth, 1999

Jamie Wyeth Unsettled is a large exhibit divided into three sections.  They are “Strangers and Specters,” “Haunted Places and Disturbing Spaces,” and “The Natural and Supernatural Worlds.”  Paintings of indoor places and outdoor spaces are sometimes eerie or suggest imprisonment. In others, Wyeth uses bones to depict grotesque scenes, and in still another, an uprooted tree appears distorted into something threatening, possibly evil.  It’s a strange collection overall.

Lightning Struck, J. Wyeth 1975

ANDREW WYETH:  WATERCOLOR STUDIES

Unseen Andrew Wyeth is a small selection of abstract watercolors, a stark contrast to the Jamie Wyeth exhibit.  These have never been displayed before and show Wyeth working with shapes and moods in blacks and browns primarily.  Some of these pieces were studies for later paintings, but not all of them.  For such a representational painter as Andrew Wyeth was, these works show a different side of his aesthetic.  Here are two of them I found striking.

SUSTENANCE: MIDCOAST DINING IN ROCKLAND

WATERWORKS RESTAURANT

After an intense morning of art, where does one eat lunch?  We used to have a favorite corner grill that produced a good lobster roll, but it closed and became a cannabis shop.  Other places we’d tried after that were just ordinary.  This time I did some research and discovered WaterWorks on a side street not far from the Farnsworth.

Casual and attractive with lots of tables and a bar, WaterWorks delivered an excellent cup of clam chowder (one of the best we’ve had!) followed by tasty, not greasy, cheese and chicken quesadillas.  It was a delicious lunch and just what we needed.  Recommended!

Note: Header photo is of the painting, Boothbay Harbor by Edward Redfield, 1937. All photos taken by JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Maine Moments: Art & Drama

FARNSWORTH ART MUSEUM: PART 1

The Farnsworth Art Museum is in Rockland around two hours north of Portland.  It’s noted for its extensive collection of works by three generations of the Wyeth family and its focus on Maine and artists working in Maine.  The Chief Penguin and I visit this museum annually; this time our motivation was a new exhibit of Jamie Wyeth’s work, but more about that exhibit in a future blog post.

This week we enjoyed Magwintegwak: A Legacy of Penobscot Basketry, were impressed by Louise Nevelson’s paintings and sculpture, and were introduced to a tsunami of color in Lynne Drexler’s recently restored pieces, Color Notes, Paintings from 1959-1969.

WABANAKI BASKETS

The Penobscot Indian Island Reservation, informally known as Indian Island, was the site of basket weaving going back to 1800. North of Rockland along the Penobscot River, part of it extends to Bangor.  Wabanaki weavers here made a variety of baskets for daily life as well as more decorative artistic ones.  For many years, they set up basket-selling tents on well-traveled routes and sold their handmade creations to tourists and others. Their baskets were, and still are, generally made of brown ash and lovely fragrant sweetgrass.  

Robert Anderson spent much of his life collecting and documenting the basketry of these Penobscot weavers, learning from his grandparents Leo and Florence Shay and from successive generations of weavers.  It’s thanks to his legacy that this exhibit was possible.  The Wabanaki also made miniature baskets to use or to show off their skills.

Strawberry, blueberry & pumpkin miniatures

LOUISE NEVELSON: SCULPTOR & PAINTER

Child from a collection, Nevelson

Louise Nevelson was born in Ukraine, but grew up in Rockland after her parents emigrated.  Years later, she was astonished and delighted to discover this wonderful art museum in her small hometown.  She donated many of her works to the Farnsworth, and this exhibit is just a sample from the collection.

I liked the small black figures and also her two self portraits. She favored black for virtually all of her sculpted work, but later she created an elaborate and monumental wedding piece in white. The Farnsworth owns one column from it.

Woman with a Red Scarf, self portrait, 1947

COLOR NOTES: “I COULD ALWAYS FIND THE COLOR”

Lynne Drexler (1928-1999) was considered a second-generation Abstract Expressionist whose work was influenced by time spent in Hawaii, California, and Mexico.  She created with colored chalk, crayons, paint, and colored pencils. Later in her life, she lived like a hermit on Monhegan Island. Years after her death, this little known artist’s paintings sold for more than a million dollars.

Shimmering Rays

Some of her works use different materials that make the colors pop and look alive like this vibrant study in pinks, greens, and lavender.

Untitled, Lynne Drexler

WATCHING: SPANISH SOAP

Betrayal (PBS Passport)

Roberto backed by mother and siblings (rmpbs.org)

Passport offerings curated by Walter Presents are generally very good.  I’m less sure about Betrayalalthough the Chief Penguin and I seem to be committed enough to keep watching.  We have completed six of the eight episodes.

Influential, well-connected attorney Julio Fuentes and his firm were close to merging with a UK law firm when he died suddenly.  His family—widow, three daughters, and one son—are in disarray when his death is ruled a murder and when another son, Carlos, unknown to them, shows up. 

Emotions in this group run high with shouting, angry outbursts, and hasty actions.  Son Roberto wants to divorce his wife and has another woman; brother-in-law Victor, the firm’s financial manager, has personal money troubles; and sister Almudena’s son Sergio is suspicious of his stepfather’s behavior and believes he’s lying to his mother.  Meanwhile matriarch Pilar works mightily to control everyone’s actions to her bidding.  

This is just a sampling of the layers of complexity, the lies, and the secrets.  Who is betraying whom or how many betrayals are there?  And who killed Julio Fuentes?  Overall, the plot is less than convincing, the characters lack depth, and yet we keep tuning in!  In Castilian Spanish with English subtitles.

Note: Header photo is a point basket by Ganessa Frey, 2006. Unattributed photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)