Author: JWF

Manhattan Moments: Seeing & Viewing

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AN ENDURING MAGAZINE

A Century of The New Yorker (New York Public Library)

New Yorker cartoon

Started in 1925 and still going strong after more than 5,000 pages, The New Yorker is a mainstay of the periodical world.  This major exhibit in the New York Public Library’s historic building at Bryant Park is informative, fun, and rich with examples of its distinctive style of writing and humor.  (Early in his career, our son worked at The New Yorker as a fact checker. This cartoon is for him and also for our older granddaughter.)

From a lighter worldview in its formative years, The New Yorker took on serious issues of the day as noted in this text from the exhibit:

“During the 1960s, Shawn ushered in a golden age of nonfiction writing at The New Yorker, one infused with the era’s ethos of activism and social change.

In short succession, the magazine published revelatory pieces on the political and psychosocial nature of race relations in the United States, the impact of industrial pollution on the environment and the human body, and the troubling legacies of Nazism. Recognizing their absence in the magazine’s pages, Shawn began publishing more contributors of color…“

Editors such as William Shawn and Tina Brown are cited, and milestones in publishing celebrated:  Ann Petry’s short story in 1958, the first by a Black individual, and John Hersey’s complete Hiroshima for the entire issue of August 31, 1946. Examples of playful and disgruntled correspondence between authors and their editors also have a place.   

There are photographs and much to read, but the hall is enlivened by a long line of colorful New Yorker covers at the ceiling above the exhibit.  Seeing the exhibit also offers an opportunity to experience some of this building’s grand architecture. 

Interior, NYPL
My Leo and one of those lions

 If you’re a fan of The New Yorker, the exhibit is definitely worth visiting and is on view until February 21, 2026!

BRITISH CRIME VIEWING

Towards Zero (BritBox)

Neville & Audrey (chicagotribune.com)

Towards Zero is a stand-alone Agatha Christie mystery. It’s quite different and yet retains some quintessential Christie hallmarks.  Set in the 1930’s, it’s in three parts and troubled Inspector Leach is the low-profile, low-key detective.   

Tennis champ Neville Strange is a wunderkind whose life has run smoothly until his wife Audrey divorces him for infidelity in a very public trial.  He quickly marries Kay, his paramour, and prepares to visit his aunt, Lady Tressilian, at her coastal estate.  His parents are no longer around and it’s clear Neville views himself as heir apparent.  Also on the scene are Mary, his aunt’s long-serving maid of all work; Mrs. Barret, the cook; Neville’s new valet Mac; lawyer Treves and his ward Sylvia; and Neville’s former wife Audrey, whom Neville invites to join them.  

Class distinctions and the disparity between the monied and the staff create tensions which are exacerbated with the mostly unexpected arrival of Thomas Boyde, a relative.  When a death occurs, and then another, Leach is called in.  True to form, all the principals are gathered in the drawing room to await Leach’s individual questioning and examination. The series moves slowly and deliberately without a lot of suspense initially, but I was kept guessing as to who the murderer was and the motivation.  Recommended for Agatha Christie fans. 

Note: Header photo outside NYPL and the literary lion one ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) Other photos are from the exhibit or the source is noted.

On the Move: Spring to Budding Spring

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This post is a mix of comments from North Carolina, a recent novel, and a note about spring in Manhattan. 

DINING IN THE TRIANGLE

Taste Vietnamese Cuisine, Morrisville, NC

Big bowl of pho (tastevietnamese919.com)

The Chief Penguin and I regularly join the Adventurous Eaters group for lunch at a different restaurant each month.  Our area is home to a wide variety of ethnic restaurants, and it’s fun to explore a new place without having to navigate there ourselves.

Taste Vietnamese Cuisine is a small eatery that graciously accommodated our gang of twelve.  Menu offerings ranged from rolls to start—spring, shrimp, and summer ones; several choices of pho (Vietnamese soup with rice noodles and meat); sandwiches (banh mi); and entrees such as the Saigon Special which included a sample of almost everything!  

I opted for a straightforward and tasty chicken BBQ banh mi with the customary carrots, cucumber, daikon, and jalapeno slices, while the CP enjoyed chicken pho with bean sprouts and jalapenos.  Everyone was pleased with the food and appreciated the friendly service.  We’d happily return to try more dishes.

NEW FICTION: ON AN ENGLISH FARM

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

Hall (amazon.com)

Broken Country is Clare Leslie Hall’s first book published in the United States.  She’s also written several thrillers published in the U.K. Set in rural North Dorset, England, this book’s bucolic setting masks the backbreaking work of life on a farm.  There are lambs to birth and always fences that need fixing.  Hall’s writing here is lovely and feels true.  

The novel moves back and forth in time from Before to the late 1960’s.  Beth and Frank and his younger brother Jimmy have known each other for years and been friends.  Gabriel, from a wealthy family, is a bit older and an aspiring writer.  He and Beth fall in love, and she hopes to join him at university when she’s of age.  

After their unexpected break-up, Beth agrees to marry farmer Frank and they have a son Bobby.  Some years later, Gabriel, divorced with a son of his own, returns to Dorset and he and Beth re-connect.  Her marriage is tested, tension builds, and there is violence and then a death.  

The book is told almost exclusively in Beth’s voice and from her perspective.  How can she be involved with two such very different men?  There are twists and turns in these very human relationships, some predictable, others not.  For me, the ending combined grace and forgiveness with resolution.  Broken Country is a Reese’s Book Club title. Recommended! (~JWFarrington)

ON TO THE BIG APPLE

As is our custom, we headed north to Manhattan a few days ago.  From gloriously blooming spring in North Carolina to early spring in New York.   The trees here have not yet fully leafed out and are mostly soft green.  Tulips abound in sidewalk beds and up and down Park Avenue.  Red, yellow, or pink, they are fully open, but not yet past their prime.  It’s a lovely time of year.

Note: Header photo of the soft colors of early spring in Manhattan by JWFarrington, tulips by GC.

Carolina Comments: Fiction & Theater

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RENEWAL

Whether you celebrate Easter or Passover or neither, spring is a time of renewal and hope.  Here in North Carolina, we are deep into spring.  The azalea bushes are bending under the weight of white, pink, and red blossoms; royal purple, butter yellow, and pale pink irises stand upright in garden beds; and the trees, seemingly overnight, have fully leafed out to lush green.  

With all that’s going wrong and awry in the world, I take pleasure and comfort in nature’s bounty of beauty.  Such beauty provides a respite and a bit of a release of tension.  May you also experience the glorious colors of spring!

READING

LOST IN THE MAINE WOODS

Heartwood by Amity Gaige

Author Gaige (theguardian.com)

In Heartwood, Nurse Valerie Gillis, 42, sets out to walk the Appalachian Trail to get her heart straight and to escape from too much death (think Covid.) She is afraid of the dark and gets lost after her new hiking friend Santo leaves the trail.  Her husband, Gregory, about whom she has mixed feelings, has been her support, meeting her at specific places with more food and supplies.

Lt. Bev, a Maine game warden, is the individual responsible for coordinating the search for Valerie.  She is experienced with an excellent track record for finding people.  Lena is a 76-year-old resident of Cedar-field, a CCRC in Connecticut, who spends hours online and misses Christine, her estranged daughter. Valerie reminds her of Christine.

The novel alternates between the perspectives of Bev, Lena, Santo, and Valerie.  Although lost, Valerie writes affectionate letters to her mother recalling the love she received in childhood and detailing her current situation.   Like Lena missing her daughter, Lt. Bev has complex issues with her own mother who is slowly dying. 

This is an intriguing and highly creative novel combining the strong presence of the natural world (woods and birds) with both the fragility and strength of human relationships.  Mothers play a key role here, but there is also sibling rivalry and affection. Keeping the reader on tenterhooks is the underlying suspense of the search.  Will Valerie be found alive or not? Highly recommended!

Amity Gaige is the author of four novels and teaches at Yale University.  Several years ago, I read and enjoyed Sea Wife, a New York Times Notable Book of 2020. (~JWFarrington)

FOOTNOTE

For those who might be interested in other books featuring game wardens, try the mystery series by Paul Doiron.  Doiron, a former editor of Down East magazine, is the author of fifteen thrillers featuring Maine game warden Mike Bowditch.  The first, published in 2010 is The Poacher’s Son, and the most recent (2024) is Pitch Dark.

INTIMATE THEATER

Stop Kiss (Justice Theater Project, Raleigh)

Callie & Sara (justicetheaterproject.com)

Until recently, I firmly believed society had made significant progress in its treatment and acceptance of the LBGTQ community.  So much of that is being challenged now by this administration.

Stop Kiss, a play by Diana Son, was written in 1998 and first presented Off-Broadway.  The principals in this cast of five are Callie, a long-time New Yorker and traffic reporter, and Sara, a schoolteacher new to the city seeking life and adventure.  George, Callie’s former boyfriend, is a regular attendee in her life, one with occasional benefits.  Callie and Sara move slowly and tentatively into a relationship until a tragic attack.  

The play is fast paced and performed with no intermission.  Scenes are very short, only a few minutes of dialogue, followed by darkness and yet another set change. Some characters appear on floor level at the right or left with the stage behind.  One knows there has been an awful event, but not the particulars. The action moves from the past to the present and back again.  The suspense is in wondering what came after the attack or, what is the fate of Callie and Sara’s relationship.

I surmise that this play likely packed more of a punch and was perhaps shocking when it was performed in 1998.  I found it somewhat dated, but probably the message is still relevant and one that needs to be delivered again and again.  

Note: Unattributed photos and header photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) 

Carolina Comments: Art & Crime

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LOOKING: MORE ANDREW WYETH

At Kuerner Farm: The Eye of the Earth (Winston Salem)

First Snow, Study for Groundhog Day, 1959

The Chief Penguin and I have seen many examples of Andrew Wyeth’s work over the decades, annually in Maine at the Farnsworth Museum and several visits to the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa.  Wyeth divided his time over his life between Pennsylvania where he grew up and the coast of Maine.  This exhibit at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art focuses on the farm neighboring the Wyeth’s property in Pennsylvania and includes some works never previously exhibited.   I liked all the angles in Grindstone, angles that contrast with the roundness of the stone almost outside the painting.

Grindstone, First Version, 1989

After his father’s death from a train collision in 1945, Andrew Wyeth became more aware of his mortality and was drawn to the cycles of life and death on the Kuerner Farm.  Karl Kuerner became a sort of surrogate father to him, and he painted both Karl and his wife, Anna, many times. 

Detail, The Kuerners, 1971

 The paintings in this exhibit are stark and muted, mainly in browns and white, and frequently depict the buildings and the landscape in snow.  Most are watercolors and a few are egg tempura.  The plaques describing each work are more detailed than in many museums and inform the viewer about Wyeth’s technique and offer more context for the image.  One late work is both realistic and fanciful as it depicts friends and others, alive and long gone, dancing around a maypole with colorful ribbons.

Detail, Snow Hill, 1989

It’s a thoughtful exhibit and is on view until May 25.  It then travels to the Brandywine River Museum outside Philadelphia and from there goes on view in Jacksonville, Florida, beginning in October.  

If you haven’t ever visited Reynolda House, it’s worth a trip.  The house was built in 1917, in American Country House style, for R.J. Reynolds and his wife Katharine.  The rooms are beautifully restored, and the walls feature a wide-ranging collection of both historic and more contemporary works by American artists.  In nice weather the formal gardens beckon.

WATCHING: CRIME IN LONDON

The Chelsea Detective Season 3 (Acorn)

Max and Layla (tellyvisions.org)

Quirky Detective Inspector Max Arnold lives on a houseboat and has an on-again off-again relationship with his ex-wife Astrid. He banters regularly with his well-meaning and somewhat interfering Aunt Olivia.  In Season 3, when he and Astrid decide to be just friends, he takes a stab at the dating scene with a horticulturist.

Max and his colleague DS Layla Walsh team up to solve murders in London’s affluent Chelsea district.  The murders are frequently unusual. What begins as a clearcut case becomes more complex with multiple suspects and sometimes international intrigue.  Chief Forensics Officer or pathologist, Ashley Wilton, rounds out the cast, and as a deaf actor is evidence of greater diversity in TV casting. 

Episodes are 90 minutes each and are being released weekly.  There are 4 episodes total in this season, and the Chief Penguin and I have enjoyed the first two.  Recommended!

Note: All unattributed photos by JWFarrington. Header photo of Fenced in, 2001, is one of the few Wyeth works with color, red on the horse’s blanket and on a distant barn.