Category: Books

Maine Musings: Light and Color

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We have moved to another house in Maine and are now enjoying views of the Sheepscot River. It’s a saltwater river and so we have some gentle tidal action exposing mud and rocks and seaweed, then covering them over again. A large family of ducks swam by yesterday and occasionally the thrum of a power boat punctuates the peaceful quiet. The neighbor’s dock is long and its struts are an appealing cross hatch of x’s and diamonds. At dusk they rise above the water and, as one person put it, look like bent knees. The other night’s sunset sky, pictured above, began as somewhat red and then intensified into slashes of mauve and magenta, like thick paint. In the early morning light, yellow predominates and all is calm.

 

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What I’m Reading: Family Portrait

I just finished Trompe L’Oeil by Nancy Reisman, a very satisfying novel on several levels. The characters are revealed as if painted on a canvas; painting; their responses to events and their feelings shift and are shaped and shaded and re-visited over time.

A tragic event in Rome opens the novel and changes life forever for the Murphy family. As readers we then follow the parents, Nora and James, and their children, Theo, Kate, Sarah and Delia, for several decades until the children become adults. Place matters enormously for each of them, be it the Rome of that family vacation or the Massachusetts shore, site of their beloved beach house.  Scattered throughout are chapters devoted to their homes interspersed with ones from the perspective of each family member individually.

Reisman also introduces real art, as in descriptions of paintings of Mary Magadelene by various artists, in separate chapters.  The description of who else is in the work, the colors used and the mood of the painting are used, I think, to reflect the feelings and emotions of particular characters. I found this an intriguing literary device and, overall, quite successful.

Like great art, this novel takes time, time to read and time to contemplate, as Reisman slowly builds up layers of life events and their impact on each member of the family.  She cares about these people and explores how they respond to the tragedies and vicissitudes life throws at them.  It is a beautifully crafted piece of work.

For an illuminating interview with the author about the creation of this novel, check out this link: http://fictionwritersreview.com/interview/solitude-and-possibility-an-interview-with-nancy-reisman/

 

[Photos copyright JWFarrington]

Maine Musings: Books & Binges

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Recent Reading

I just finished reading The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power by Kim Ghattas.  It is a fascinating and nuanced account of American diplomacy as seen through the lens of a BBC correspondent. Ghattas, a native of Lebanon, was part of the press corps traveling the world with Clinton.  With her other-than-American perspective, she provides a rich and detailed discussion of the subtleties of U.S. relations with various countries and, what one might call a primer, on the context and rules of engagement as put forth and practiced by the Clinton/Obama team.

Ghattas by Dina Debbas
Ghattas by Dina Debbas

Ghattas also shares the more mundane but, to a reader, intriguing details about the briefing books and the meticulous planning that goes into every international trip, what it’s like to travel on Hillary’s plane, and how Clinton interacts with the press corps. You see glimpses of Clinton that the general public doesn’t.  I came away with a renewed appreciation for Clinton’s intellect and savvy and her belief in striving for personal engagement with the leaders of every country and with their citizenry.  What she called “smart power.”

 

 

I wanted and expected to like Michelle Huneven’s newest novel, Off Course, but was somewhat disappointed. I thought Blame, an earlier work, was powerful, startling, and very well written. Off Course is the story of a young woman who goes to her parents’ cabin in the Sierra Nevadas ostensibly to write her economics dissertation.  Instead Cress spends most of her time and her mental energy on sexual affairs, the first one something of a toss-off with a much older man, the second one an affair that grows in intensity and takes over her life.

Huneven from www.kcrw.com
Huneven from www.kcrw.com

 

Huneven’s writing is both sharp and picturesque delineating the changes of the seasons as time passes and the affair limps along.  At about one-third of the way in (more than a hundred pages), I found myself more engaged with Cress and her friends in the community and my reading pace picked up.  Overall, I was not  enthralled unlike the reviewers in the book blurbs.

 

 

 

 

 

Binging When It Rains

We had several days of rainy weather not conducive to sitting in the yard gazing at the day lilies. Fortunately, we discovered Redbox. I’m guessing that we were among the small group of the uninformed, but thanks to Googling video rentals, we located two Redbox kiosks in our area. Quite an amazing advance. A big red metal box, like a  soda vending machine, up against the side of the Hannaford supermarket with an auxiliary skinnier red box next to it. It works like an ATM; you swipe your credit card, scroll through the screens to choose a movie, and soon a DVD pops out of a slot to your right, in a red case, of course. The rental cost—a mere $1.58 for return by 9 pm the next night!

So, what did we watch? At that price, you can be indiscriminate in your choices:

Woman in Gold. Unlike the critics, we liked this film a lot. Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann is great and, while you know or can guess the outcome, this true story of recovering art seized by the Nazis is absorbing, partly because Mrs. Altmann’s youth and marriage are depicted in flashbacks.

Still Alice. I read Lisa Genova’s novel of the same name when it came out and found it moving and painful. I resisted seeing the movie until now. Julianne Moore’s depiction of neuroscience professor Alice descending into Alzheimer’s is a marvelous feat of acting, but is still painful to watch. Not for an evening of popcorn and light entertainment.

My Old Lady. This is a somewhat strange film about an older American who has inherited his father’s apartment in Paris. Except that it is a “viager” and comes with an elderly lady who has the continued right to live there. Kevin Kline plays the hapless, aimless man and Maggie Smith is his tenant. Maggie Smith is Maggie Smith and thus, makes the film better than it might have been. I wouldn’t rush right out to rent it, but we did watch it all the way to the end.

 

Booknote: Summer Reading

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For some of us, summertime is an excuse to read something light or more frivolous than we usually would.  For others, it’s an opportunity to devote time to delving into a serious tome, perhaps one that’s been languishing on the shelf.  I view it as a chance to do both—indulge in lighter fare and stretch my brain with something more challenging, usually a nonfiction title.  When I was working fulltime, Maine was my time for extended reading.  Now I have more available time, but I still see Maine as a gift for long spans of reading, whole mornings or whole afternoons.

Before leaving home, I load up my Kindle with new books, pack a few paper books in my luggage, and, don’t tell my spouse, even mail myself a box of assorted novels and nonfiction to await my arrival.  On the day we arrive at our rental house, a priority is to assemble all the books I’ve brought or mailed and put them in stacks on the living room end table with another stack in the bedroom.  There’s something very appealing about having all those choices laid out from which I can choose what to read next!

Here are some titles I’m considering.  More to come in a future post.

Flying Shoes by Lisa Howoth.  A first novel about an unsolved murder in Mississippi in 1996.

Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris, 1932 by Francine Prose.  A novel about a lesbian and cross dresser that seems appropriate reading given today’s ongoing conversation about gender and gender roles.  On the “2014 100 Notable Books” list from the New York Times Book Review.

Mrs. Lincoln’s Rival by Jennifer Chiaverini.  Chiaverini has written several historical novels set in the time of the Civil War as well as a series of books about quilters.  Lighter fare and this will be my first of hers..

Muse by Jonathan Galassi.  A new short novel about the world of publishing.

Ashley’s War by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.  Nonfiction account of women on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2010.

The Secretary by Kim Ghattas.  Published a couple of years ago, this is a reporter’s account of traveling with Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State.   Timely given her candidacy.

WHAT I’VE READ RECENTLY

What is it like to work in the White House?  The Residence by Kate Andersen Brower is a quick read  based on interviews with butlers, seamstresses, housemaids, valets, and other White House staff from FDR and Truman to the present.  For the most part, the closer you get to the present day, the more restrained the staff are in their comments about the President and First Family, but you still get an intriguing glimpse of that enclosed world.  Each family has its own distinct personality and its own preferences and some families were definitely friendlier to the staff.

 

Tidy Tidbits: Film, Art & Vanessa

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FILM

I recommend Far from the Madding Crowd!  Beautiful countryside, beautifully filmed, and Carey Mulligan is a lovely Bathsheba, intelligent, definite and almost elfin.  And the men—Francis Troy has the required rakish dark hair and eyes, Boldwood (don’t you love Hardy’s choice of names!) is older, but not as sinister seeming as in the novel, and Gabriel Oak, well, he is all that the hero is supposed to be—strong, silent and ever reliable.  I prefer this version to the earlier one starring Julie Christie.  A good romantic film to get lost in!

ART IN SARASOTA

I believe that part of having a successful retirement life is creating something new or at least exploring and experiencing different activities and events.  My spouse and I call this aspect, “the frolic phase,” and we have developed gradations of frolics from micro to mini to mega. Frolics range from dinner at a new restaurant to a museum visit to a full-blown trip like the 5-week one we took to Asia.

This past week, we had what I’d term a mini frolic.  We had been to John and Mable Ringling’s mansion, Ca d’Zan, at Christmas time, but never to the Ringling Museum of Art.  We have now remedied that and were quite impressed.  The Ringlings’ personal art collection, which was bequeathed to the state of Florida upon John Ringling’s death in 1936, is primarily made up of Renaissance and pre-Renaissance religious art, mainly by Italians, but there are representatives of Dutch, French and Spanish artists as well. They are hung in a series of wood-paneled galleries, each of a different wall color, in the original building.  The building itself is modeled on an Italian villa with a bronze copy of Michelangelo’s David looming over the courtyard and is worth seeing.

The addition of the Ulla and Arthur T. Searing Wing provides a contemporary museum space for traveling and temporary exhibits and we got caught up in “Re-Purposed,” sculpture and other art created from trash and cast-off items.  I would also note that we had the pleasure of meeting the late Mrs. Searing several years ago. She was then 92, elegantly dressed and very  proper.  We conversed over tea and Pepperidge Farm cookies on her balcony high up overlooking Sarasota Bay.

NEW BOOK 

Vanessa Bell about 1910 & Virginia Woolf, 1902 [by George C. Beresford/Hutton Archive
Vanessa Bell about 1910 & Virginia Woolf, 1902
[by George C. Beresford/Hutton Archive]
I dashed through Priya Parmar’s new novel, Vanessa and Her Sister, and was simply captivated!  This is Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf, but with the attention on Nessa as she was called.  Parmar has created a chatty diary for Vanessa and her dated entries are interrupted by letters and postcards from other family members and friends (Virginia and Nessa to Violet Dickinson and Dorothy Snow,  Lytton Strachey and Leonard Woolf to each other).  The four Stephen siblings, who had lost both their parents and their half sister Stella, were extremely close and formed a tight little social group which was enlivened by close friends dropping by for their Thursday evenings.  The novel makes clear the steadying influence Vanessa had on Virginia and how much Virginia needed and wanted her attention.  Nonetheless,  death, madness,  Clive’s courtship of Vanessa, and betrayal all conspire to disrupt the balance and seeming harmony of the group..

These are 20 and 30-something writers and artists who, without Facebook or texting, are aiming to be successful in their endeavors and falling in and out of love with potential life partners, be they male or female.  Parmar brings their unconventional social milieu to life—so much so that I felt as if I were there and well acquainted with Vanessa.  It is probably helpful to know something about these noteworthy and ultimately famous individuals (I did, being a fan of the Bloomsbury Group), but even if you don’t, their story and their issues of artistic creation and love of all kinds will engage you.  I didn’t want the book to end.