Pond reflections at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Maine Time: Other Lives & Gardens

READING BIOGRAPHY

When it comes to nonfiction, I read more biography than anything else.  I find historical biography often compelling and am regularly drawn into memoirs written by contemporaries.  The past few weeks, I’ve been dipping into two works in this genre.

The True History of the First Mrs. Meredith and Other Lesser Lives by Diane Johnson

Novelist Diane Johnson wrote this biography in 1972.  New York Review Books re-issued it this year with a new introduction by critic Vivian Gornick.  Mrs. Meredith, or Mary Ellen Meredith, was novelist George Meredith’s first wife.  She ultimately left Meredith for artist Henry Wallis, with whom she’d been having an affair—a scandalous act for a woman in the 1850’s.  

What makes this biography unconventional is Johnson’s attention to other individuals in Mary Ellen’s life, even those to whom she had only the briefest of connections. Mary Ellen’s journals and quotes from poems are included as well as tidbits of history and lore.  Johnson was fortunate in her search for material to locate a cache of letters from Mary Ellen to Henry secreted in the former home of their son Felix.  

It’s a quirky book and quite delightful, a bit like exploring an old-fashioned desk with pigeonholes filled with seemingly unrelated items.  It was also an inspiration for Phyllis Rose. She’s the author of one of my favorite collective biographies entitled, Parallel Lives:  Five Victorian Marriages, published in 1983.  

Flowers at the botanical garden
The Shadow in the Garden:  A Biographer’s Tale by James Atlas

James Atlas was a publisher and biographer whose works include the life stories of novelist Saul Bellow and poet Delmore Schwartz.   His Schwartz biography was nominated for the National Book Award.  In this work, Atlas talks about his approach to writing a life and, along the way discusses classical biographical works by Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Gaskell and others.  He also shares his conversations and encounters with noted critics of the 20th century such as Elia Kazan, Philip Rahv, and Allen Bloom.  

It’s a chatty book, written in an informal style. I quickly found myself warming to this self-effacing man who was persistent when on the hunt for source material.  I have yet to finish it (have been happily distracted by my granddaughters) but will enjoy continuing his journey.  The book was published in 2017 and, I just learned that Atlas died in 2019 at age 70.

THE MAINE GARDEN

Aluminum sculpture panels by Meg Brown Payson

The website for the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is mainegardens.org so it seems appropriate to call it the Maine garden.  Despite all the restrictions imposed due to Covid-19, the garden is beautiful and a draw for locals, tourists, and kids.  I was concerned that our granddaughters would be disappointed since the playhouse, story barn, and water pump in the Children’s Garden are not available. They loved the Fairy Village, however, and requested a return visit.  The village was the highlight, but they were also entranced by a waterfall, intrigued by hunting for and counting frogs, curious about the honeybee exhibit, and happy to traipse along the woodland trail noting the occasional sculpture or rock outcropping.  

Cleaning house in the Fairy Village
Waterfall over rock
Gazing at the Sheepscot River
Looking out at Sheepscot River

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

Newagen Harbor

Maine Time: Reading & Granddaughters

SUMMER READING

The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow

Anyone who’s read Austen’s Pride and Prejudice may recall Mary, the youngest Bennet girl and the one who gets the least positive attention.  She is smart, but she’s plain and outspoken, and she wears glasses.  In this novel, Hadlow takes up Mary’s cause and projects a life for her after the death of her father and the marriages of her four sisters. Part I mostly sets the stage by recapping the events leading up to sister Jane’s marriage to Bingley, and her sister Elizabeth’s bumpy road to becoming Mr. Darcy’s wife and the lady of Pemberley.   In a little like Goldilocks looking for the perfect resting place, Mary spends time on lengthy visits to Jane, then to family friend Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins, and then to her aunt Gardiner.  

This aunt takes Mary under her wing, sees that she has the proper attire for evening affairs and dinners, and oversees her developing friendships with two young men.  In time, Mary comes into her own, blossoming into an assured and self-confident individual who has much to offer and the opportunity for a more fulfilling life. 

I found this novel both successful and satisfying.  Hadlow remains mostly true to the mores of the day, and Mary’s transformation from ugly duckling to poised woman is convincing.  I might quibble that the third and fourth parts are longer than they need to be, but the expedition to the Scottish Lake Country is finely wrought and moves the story forward in the right way.  I found myself rooting for Mary from the get-go. Recommended! (~JWFarrington)

Secrets in Summer by Nancy Thayer

Nancy Thayer is not as popular an author as Elin Hilderbrand, but she too sets her novels in Nantucket and has written a slew of them.  Darcy is a fulltime resident living in the house she grew up in and inherited from her grandmother.  A children’s librarian, she has a dream job which she loves, but is distressed when her ex-husband and family rent the house next to hers for the summer.  The houses are close together, and she becomes entangled in the affairs and secrets of his teenaged stepdaughter, Willow. Add to this, Darcy’s attraction to both carpenter Noah, working on house repairs for her, and musicologist Clive, in town to work on a book, and you have a stew of romance, misunderstandings, and miscommunication.  The Nantucket details are fun, and the story is perfect beach reading—even if you’re reading from home!  

Lone seagull on a rock

GRANDDAUGHTER DIVERSIONS

The Chief Penguin and I are fortunate that we are in Maine (very low Covid-19 numbers and no cases in this county) and lucky that our granddaughters, 4 and 8, are here for a long visit.  Equipped with laptops and borrowed card tables, their parents can work while Grandpa and Grandma are on duty. We have done a lot of the obvious things with the girls.  Exploring the rocks and sandy coast for shells and sea glass, taking walks out and about, reading books together, baking and icing cupcakes, and assembling blueberry pancakes, an annual tradition.  

Besides the drawing and coloring they can do on their own, two purchases I made are providing hours of fun and diversion.  I don’t usually tout brand name products, but the tablecloth map of the United States from Uncommon Goods is simply fabulous!  Every state is labeled with its name and state capital and its state bird, state flower, and state animal are there to be colored in.  The cloth comes with a set of washable markers and can be decorated and then washed and colored all over again.  I printed out a list of state birds and flowers as a reference.  We talked about the states we live in and have visited, the best route to get from one place to another and so on.  That then led to a discussion of other countries and how far away they might be.

The next day we talked about Norway and the other Scandinavian countries and found them on a map on the computer, but how much more fun it would be for them to color all the countries of the world!  The U.S. tablecloth is so popular that I will definitely order the world map version. 

My other smart purchase for their visit was a handy travel case of Classic Legos.  Included are the small Legos in a variety of colors and shapes along with a booklet of ideas to make.  Between the suggestions and their imaginations, the girls have stayed occupied for long stretches.  They also had fun spreading out the U.S. tablecloth on the floor and then inventing scenarios with their Lego creations—car, castle, house, lighthouse—and placing somewhere on the map.

READING IN PROGRESS

When not engaged with my granddaughters, I’ve been poking my way through a quirky biography from 1970 and have just started a memoir about the biographer’s art that was published three years ago.  I expect to have a few thoughts about these two works in my next blog, at which point I will identify them.  Curious, yet?

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

View of Cozy Harbor, Maine

Maine Time: A Slower Pace

IN A BOOK

I’m a voracious reader, but I have to admit that this summer I’m finding it harder to read serious works. Perhaps it’s the effect of living with the coronavirus or maybe it’s part laziness. In any case, I’m spending more time devouring beach reads and mysteries with the occasional heavier title tossed in. Some of the books I brought to Maine are ones I’ve owned for awhile, but many of them sit in a yet-to-be-read stack while I dive into the latest e-book from the library or some just purchased light fare. That said, here are two intriguing novels and one long memoir that lends itself to skimming. What is your reading like this year?

Historical Fiction

Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie Benjamin

Books about people and events during World War II are still big sellers. I’m beginning to tire of them, but Mistress of the Ritz was an exception. It’s gripping and thrilling and a fast-paced read. It’s based on or perhaps inspired by, as author Benjamin states in an afterword, Blanche Auzello and her husband, Claude, the manager of the Ritz. It begins in 1940 when the Nazis first occupy Paris–and the hotel. What is amazing and makes for delicate situations, is that the hotel remains open to rich and celebrated guests while simultaneously being Nazi headquarters. Blanche is an American while Claude is French and exceedingly proud of his position. He devotes himself to the Ritz and to a succession of mistresses that leave his wife subject to neglect.

photo of Blanche Auzello
Blanche Auzello (memoiresdeguerre.com)

Early on, the reader experiences Blanche as a bit of a flibbertigibbet, caught up with fashion, hobnobbing with famous guests, and flirting with handsome Nazi officers. One wonders where her story will lead. As ordinary people begin to disappear, life becomes harder for these two gracious hosts, and the roles they furtively play expose them to danger and exposure. It’s a novel of secrets and intrigue, love and trust, mistrust and misunderstanding. Chapters alternate between Claude and Blanche. Recommended!

Benjamin is also the author of The Aviator’s Wife, a very well received novel about the marriage of Anne and Charles Lindbergh. (~JWFarringon)

Contemporary Thriller

The Last Flight by Julie Clark

I have my friend Marnie to thank for putting me on to this novel. The Last Flight is about two women anxious to exit their present lives. Claire Cook is married to a wealthy man, scion of a wealthy family, who is also abusive. She is desperate to escape his censure and physical abuse and plots to assume a new identity on a business trip to Detroit.

Claire gets re-assigned to fly to Puerto Rico instead and in the airport meets Eva who is leaving a checkered past behind. Eva has fewer options for the future, so she offers to exchange boarding passes and IDs with Claire. What happens when Claire and Eva assume each other’s identities and struggle to function in new environments makes for a gripping story. There may be a few too many coincidences, but it’s a great gallop of a book! (~JWFarrington)

Memoir–Serious But Not Too

Barbarian Days:  A Surfing Life by William Finnegan (2015)

William Finnegan is a staff writer for the New Yorker and author of a number of books.  I am the last person my friends would expect to read a book about surfing, but his memoir won the Pulitzer Price and got such great reviews, it’s been on my radar.  A hefty 400 plus pages, it’s chock full of detail about surfing spots around the world. 

William Finnegan, surfer, approaching waves
(kcrw.com)

Finnegan is almost mesmerizing as he describes waves, water, and the thrill of surfing.  And he’s candid about his occasional fear of drowning.  For me, the appeal was more his account of his childhood years in California and Hawaii, his parents’ laissez-faire approach to any oversight of his doings, and the regular bullying he quietly endured into his teens.  

Finnegan took a long time to settle down. He roamed the globe to experience great surfing venues (Samoa, Australia, Madeira), dropped in and out of college, reported from war zones, and worked on a novel.  Finnegan claims that surfing was not his primary passion in the way that it is for others, but he was regularly enticed to yet another locale. It’s clear that surfing remains important to him and is an escape from the mundane even into his 60’s. (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo of Cozy Harbor ©JWFarrington