MAINE COAST VIBE
We have been coming to mid-coast Maine for 35 years and staying in the same house for about twenty of those years. What is Maine’s everlasting appeal? Growing up, the Chief Penguin visited Maine in the summers with his parents and siblings. I had never been to Maine until a reunion of friends in 1990. My family always traveled to the Midwest: Michigan, Ohio, or Indiana, to visit grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. Perhaps, it was Maine’s cool contrast to the heat and humidity of the Philadelphia area, where the C.P. and I lived then.
Or was it the idyllic setting, that jagged rocky shoreline both hugging and sometimes perched above the ocean’s cold waters? The profusion of vibrant day lilies, red roses, and the occasional hollyhock?
Add in savoring fresh lobster on simple, not gussied up lobster rolls, or learning the art of dismantling a whole lobster steamed in seawater by our good friend Bob. Bob’s was only my second lobster, but the first of many over the years.
When in Maine, we relax and unwind. I ship up a box of books and buy yet more books from my favorite independent bookstores in Portland, Boothbay Harbor, and Damariscotta. I treat myself some days with reading time in bed before getting up. We binge watch the latest crime series or catch up with Grantchester. We even occasionally see a movie in the charming local cinema.
We visit the local botanical garden multiple times (at least once with every set of houseguests), we travel up to the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, and we enjoy dinners and lunches out with local friends. And we eagerly anticipate the annual visit of our son and family for whom Maine is one of their summer musts. Our granddaughters too have created Maine memories and traditions.
Within this peaceful space, we could easily become very lazy. We work to stay fit with frequent walks on the hilly, but quiet, neighborhood roads. The air is fresh and generally dry; some years (like this one), there is an abundance of fog and haze. Our view here is of ocean in one direction and a cove in the other. We never tire of watching the water, the push and pull of the tide over unbending rocks, with whitecaps and pounding waves on a windy day.
Coastal Maine is a place where you can lose yourself in the view, both enjoying its special beauty and recognizing your small role in nature’s overall scheme.. We look forward to our time here every year.
SUMMER READING FROM MY LIST
Last House by Jessica Shattuck
Jessica Shattuck knows how to tell a good story. This one about a family over many decades and the summer house they acquire in Vermont is absorbing and rich. Last House is set primarily in the 1950’s to 1970’s and then later. Nick is a lawyer working for a big oil company and his wife Bet, who aspired to earn a PhD and become a professor, is a housewife raising their two children. Nick is involved in negotiations to put the deposed shah of Iran back in power while she edits a cookbook for the equivalent of the junior league.
Their children, Katharine and Harry, are seemingly very different. Katharine has opinions and is somewhat wild while, Harry is in tune with nature and less driven. After college, Katharine works for a political publication as a reporter and writer, sharing some of its editors’ views, but is not an extreme activist. Harry drifts and spends time at Last House, their retreat from real life in Connecticut.
Against the backdrop of the McCarthy era, the Vietnam War, and the later debates about climate change: damage to the environment and the role of fossil fuels, particularly oil, the lives of these individuals play out, often unsatisfactorily and sometimes tragically. Last House is an engrossing novel with a cast of complex and sympathetic characters. Recommended! I would also recommend Shattuck’s other historical novel, The Women in the Castle. (~JWFarrington)
NEW CINEMA: NOT QUITE A ROM-COM
Materialists (in theaters)
What are the clients of an upscale dating agency looking for? Their descriptions of the ideal date, a potential spouse, focus on height, looks, background and smarts, and how big a salary. In Materialists, Lucy Mason (played by Dakota Johnson) is a matchmaker in New York for the Adore company. She herself is single, with no interest in marrying, and possesses a successful track record in finding mates for her clients to marry.
Harry, the brother of one of her matches, challenges her to date him and she does. He’s super rich, good looking, and seems to have everything she could want. Lurking in the background is her good friend John, a waiter and sometime actor, who is always happy to assist her and regularly checks in.
The opening scene of Materialists seems crazy and part of a different movie entirely until the end. What or who does Lucy really want in her life and how will she achieve it? I was reminded of Jane Austen’s novels and her emphasis on women needing to find a man of property to marry, and of men of more modest backgrounds (in other novels) seeking a woman with a sizable dowry to fuel their lives together. The film traces Lucy’s journey with Harry as she ponders and begins to realize what is most important for her life. I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and once we got enough into it, so did the Chief Penguin! (~JWFarrington)
Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved) except the one of Ms. Shattuck.
