Tag: recent novels

Maine Musings: Mostly Books

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VIRGINIA BOOTLEGGERS

Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls

Author Walls (Simon & Schuster)

Set in rural Virginia during Prohibition, Jeannette Walls’ new novel, Hang the Moon, is a rollicking ride with a family of whiskey bootleggers.  The Duke, Sallie Kincaid’s father and kingpin of the local economy, is a big man both in size and personality.  He receives adoration but offers little in return.  With multiple wives and children from various relationships, he is a force to be obeyed.  In his motherless daughter Sallie, he inspires hero worship and a zeal to be like him.  

At 18, Sallie, the focal point of the novel, is called back home after having been sent away some years before.  She is determined to win the Duke’s admiration, or at least, his respect.  Learning to drive, she convinces him to hire her as his bagman.  She collects rents from the tenants, makes deliveries, and inevitably gets caught up in the long-running feud between Kincaid’s men and those of the Bond family. 

It’s a life of hard work, violence, and skirting the law.  Sallie is fierce and independent and while coming into her own after the Duke’s death, has seen only what she wanted to see about the relationships between her aunts, cousins, and siblings.  Her Kincaid family history is a complex web of extramarital affairs, deaths, and failed marriages.  

Walls cites an impressive number of sources in her afterword and details which characters are modeled after real people. Highly recommended–it’s hard to put down once you start! (~JWFarrington)

TAKEOFF ON LITTLE WOMEN

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Napolitano (author’s website)

Who are we in our 20’s and how do we evolve and grow as we progress toward middle age?  Ann Napolitano’s Hello Beautiful is a wonderfully enveloping novel about four sisters and the two men who impact their lives.  The women: ambitious organized Julia; Sylvie, earnest reader and librarian in the making; and the twins, Cecelia artistic and free-spirited; and Emeline, nurturer and caregiver; are entwined in a close-knit Catholic family in Chicago.  Julia meets William Waters in college.  Unloved, overlooked by his parents, and unsure of himself, he is Julia’s opposite in so many ways.  

When they marry, William acquires an instant family which he finds both overwhelming and mostly delightful.  Julia is a planner who has her life mapped out; William struggles on her suggested path but is not as focused or driven as she.  He gets his kicks from basketball and mentoring injured players.

Charlie, the girls’ father, is an alcoholic dreamer and seemingly ineffectual, but he sees them all more clearly than they realize.  His early death leaves a big hole, and they reflect fondly on his always cheery greeting of “Hello, Beautiful.”  

There is a rupture when one sister leaves town and, over the decades as they age, their relationships shift as new people come into the mix.  The tightness of the sisterly bonds and a subplot about absentee fathers make for an emotion-laden experience. 

I found this novel so absorbing, I read it very quickly, completely caught up in the unfolding story.  Highly recommended. (~JWFarrington)

VIEWING NOTES (PBS Passport)

Will, wife Bonnie, & Geordie in Grantchester (PBS)

This past week, we finished the most recent seasons of both Grantchester and Endeavour. In Season 8 of Grantchester, Will is in turmoil, Leonard is having difficulties with his halfway house and Daniel, and Geordie faces forced retirement.  There’s a lot going on, and it’s emotionally absorbing.  There will be one more season with Tom Brittney as vicar Will Davenport before he departs the series.

This season of Endeavour is the finale.  We watched the first two episodes and had saved up this last one.  It’s poignant and bittersweet as almost everyone moves on to another place or phase.  DI Thursday may be retiring, there are old murders to solve, festering scores to settle, and Miss Thursday is getting married.  Endeavour Morse must face what comes after. 

Endeavour & Joan Thursday (WTTW)

If you are a fan of any of the Colin Dexter-based series from John Thaw in Inspector Morse, to Kevin Whately as Lewis, and then Shaun Evans as the young Morse in Endeavour, I highly recommend a short documentary.  

Morse & Lewis (CUNY TV)

It’s called Morse and The Last Endeavour:  A Masterpiece Mystery! Special.  It’s an affectionate look at the entire set of episodes from 1987 to the present and includes interviews with many of the actors about their characters, along with comments about what it was like to film in Oxford.  It’s a treat!  But there are spoilers so watch all of this Endeavour first.

There’s also a one-on-one interview with Shaun Evans about his evolving role as both actor and director. It too is on PBS Passport and worth watching.

Note: Header photo of lilies taken ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Reading & Art

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I recently completed several novels: historical fiction about a rich heiress, a contemporary novel about the power of books, and lastly, an unusual first novel set in nature. This week, the Chief Penguin and I also got to the Whitney Museum of American Art for one of their featured exhibits.

LIVING WITH THE ONE PERCENT

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki

Marjorie Post, 1946 (Frank O. Salisbury via Artsy)

Allison Pataki’s novel about the life of cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post is a fast-paced engrossing read.  Doted on and educated in the family Grape Nuts business as a child, Marjorie was beautiful and smart and a millionaire before the age of 30.  Coming of age when women of her class did not hold jobs, let alone run companies, she relied for decades on the men in her family, generally her husbands (multiple) or her uncle, to run Post (which later became General Foods).  She lived a life of supreme luxury and both built and renovated lavish homes.  

When she became frustrated with just hostessing and socializing, Marjorie would take on a grand project.  She furnished money, supplies, and staff for a frontline hospital in France during the Great War.  During the Depression, she started and ran a large soup kitchen.  She became friends with U.S. presidents.  And when her 4th husband was ambassador to Russia during the Second World War, her social skills were an important asset to his success.  

Marjorie was less successful in her choice of men from first husband Greenwich gentleman Ed Close to fourth husband statesman Joey Davies; she ended up divorcing every one of them.  Yet she was notable and memorable to the end for her style and the causes she championed.  A fascinating and fun novel! (~JWFarrington)

FOR LOVE OF LITERATURE

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

Sara Adams connected with her grandfather through a love of books. In her first novel, The Reading List, teenage Aleisha works at a branch library in London and after being rude to an older gentleman patron, becomes friendly with him and ultimately with his granddaughter Priya.  Mukesh is a lonely widower and not the reader his late wife was.  He reads Time Traveler’s Wife and then asks Aleisha for a book recommendation.  Thus begins his literary journey with Aleisha giving him books from a handwritten list she found.  She reads the books first to be knowledgeable.  

Several other people in the community find copies of this same list of titles. Reading these classics such as Little Women, The Kite Runner, and To Kill a Mockingbird, provides comfort and perspective on their own troubles and concerns.  A paean to the power of good literature, the novel is also a poignant story of connection and community among neighbors and family of different generations.  Recommended! (~JWFarrington)

SUBSISTING IN NATURE

Lungfish by Meghan Giliss

Author Giliss (Portland Press Herald)

Lungfish is a first novel set on an isolated island in Maine.  Tuck and her little daughter Agnes have fled to what was Tuck’s late grandmother’s deserted cottage.  It’s summer, but there is no heat or amenities, and Tuck has very little money.  Her husband Paul is sometimes physically present, but often asleep. He works little or not at all and is suffering the ravages of addiction.  Tuck and Agnes comb the shoreline for snails and other edible animals and plants.  It’s a hard austere life.

The narrative is all told from Tuck’s perspective and goes back in forth and time as she re-visits her childhood in Indiana, her relations with her mother and father, and her aborted veterinary studies.  She reviews specific events and reflects on them in a new way.  

I found this a challenging novel to read.  The prose is straightforward and the physical details of the natural world concrete, but so much is diffuse in terms of when and how a past event occurred.  As I read, I always found myself working hard to fill in the blanks.  I did finish the book and, in a limited way, appreciated Giliss’s bold and unusual approach to storytelling.  (~JWFarrington)

POLITICS IN ART

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (The Guardian)

At Christie’s last week, one of the first paintings I encountered was a large canvas of mostly red with some browns by this artist, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith.

Smith’s work at Christie’s gallery

I was intrigued and so, when we planned our visit to the Whitney Museum, I noted we could view the first New York retrospective of this Native American artist’s art. Born in 1940, Smith has had a long career as artist and educator. Her works feature images relative to Native American life combined with themes of conservation and the environment, racism, and cultural identity.

Cheyenne Series, #4, 1984

Some of the earlier works are more representational, a series of horses, for example. Later works are somewhat collage-like and often satirical or absurd in tone with newspaper headlines and snatches of text pasted on.

What is An American? 2003

I didn’t like everything, but found the exhibit thought-provoking and a different way to think about Native American imagery.

Flathead Vest, Father & Child, 1996

Note: Unattributed photos by JWFarrington. Header photos is Green Flag, 1995 by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith.

On Screen & On the Page

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FILMS AND BOOKS. From a daring adventurer (Gertrude Bell) and a fictional newly minted doctor, Ally Moberley, to a grief stricken father and son and devastated parents to murder and Belgian emigres, I’ve covered a lot of ground in my recent filmgoing and reading.  Much of it has been in international settings too: Persia and the Middle East, England and Japan and also Paris.  A lot of heavy stuff, but some of it (the latest Maisie Dobbs mystery) just enjoyable. A real potpourri!

FILM FARE

Letters from Baghdad

Gertrude Bell was a most remarkable woman. She, more than anyone else including T.E. Lawrence, was responsible for carving out the borders of what became Iraq and for establishing the Iraq Museum to house its antiquities. She traveled on her own to then Persia and other countries in the Middle East becoming knowledgeable about the lands and the native peoples. And she wrote several books.

After WWI, the British government hired her to work with them, the lone woman among powerful senior officials. Many of them had little regard for her initially, but she worked closely with Sir Percy Cox, High Commissioner for Mesopotamia, who was both mentor and protector. Brusque, arrogant and strong-willed, hers was a challenging personality. Thwarted in love, she maintained her close ties with her parents and wrote them wonderful letters.

What is amazing about this film is not only what it reveals about this accomplished, but less well known woman, but the fact that it makes use of very early archival films and is based on her letters and diaries and a biography by Janet Wallach.   The film is in black and white and Tilda Swinton is the voice of Gertrude Bell. Besides portraying a fascinating woman, it’s an absorbing history lesson.

Dean

This is a sweet film written by and starring Demetri Martin. It’s a portrait of male grief as a father and his adult son mourn the loss of their wife and mother. Both are somewhat lost souls, the son more so than the father. The father, affectingly played by Kevin Kline, decides to sell the family home, a decision upsetting to son Dean. Dean is an illustrator, formerly engaged to Michelle, who escapes NY for a job interview in Los Angeles. It’s not really his scene, but he stays with a friend, parties, and is attracted to Nicky, a charming young woman.

The film could have been tighter and shorter, but is worth seeing for how this father and son communicate or don’t. It’s different than how women do it. One final note, the drawings are clever and funny or morbid and all done by Martin.

RECENT READING 

Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss

This historical novel from Britain is best read slowly. Set in 1878, it concerns the intertwined lives and separate careers of architect Tom Cavendish and newly minted medical doctor, Ally Moberley. They marry just before he goes on assignment to Japan to oversee building a lighthouse. She, fascinated by diseases of the mind, starts work in an insane asylum in the English countryside. In alternating chapters, Moss presents what each of them is doing. They write letters, but their time apart is long and their young marriage fragile.

Moss’s writing is sensitive and nuanced and she is skilled at capturing the vagaries of weather and scenery and how they echo or inform Ally and Tom’s perceptions of themselves. I found the novel both moving and poignant.

 

The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal

Set in Paris and translated from the French, this is a beautifully written short novel about the death of a young man and all the steps from his accident to the transplantation of his heart. Covering the details of the accident and all of the people (doctors, nurses, technicians) whose lives and actions touch him afterward, it is intense, graphic, and matter-of-fact all at once. The sentences are long and almost unending as they unfurl, and the paragraphs few.

You, the reader, become acquainted with Simon’s parents in their moment of extreme distress and are privy to the medical policies and procedures that lead from them agreeing to donate his organs to the steps involved in making a match, to how the eventual heart transplant is carried out and to whom. I found this a hard novel to read despite its evocative writing.

In This Grave Hour by Jacqueline Winspear

The latest installment in Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series is set in London just at the start of WWII as England declares war on Germany.  Private investigator Maisie is recruited to investigate the death of a railway worker who also happens to be an immigrant from Belgium.  He came over as a youth during the previous war and stayed to make his life in Britain. Other deaths, presumably also murders, occur and the search for answers widens.

The slate of characters, Maisie’s office staff Billy and Sandra, her friends Priscilla and Lady Rowan, and the detectives and inspectors, McFarlane and Stratton, are familiar from earlier books, but Winspear is good at providing a bit of backstory for new readers. These are mysteries that unfold slowly and precisely, made enjoyable by the force of Maisie’s personality and her fond adherence to the precepts she learned from her mentor Maurice. Good choice to take to the beach.

Note:  Header image at Brooklyn Botanic Garden ©JWFarrington; all other images are from the web, courtesy of PBS Learning Media, French Embassy, and Moss and Winspear’s own websites.