Last week, the Chief Penguin and I spent several days in North Carolina. The primary reason was to attend my niece’s wedding in Durham. This was also a rare opportunity for a family gathering. Two young nieces participated as flower girls and loved their flower wands! My three siblings and spouses were there as well as many of the next generation. We don’t all get together often so it was special.
Four siblings & a great niece
The only disappointment was the lack of our son, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters. Their flight from New York was cancelled, one of the casualties of Ophelia’s torrential rains and flooding. They were sorely missed!
Novelist Pip Williams, a Londoner by birth, lives in Australia, but her two historical novels are set in and around Oxford, England. I loved The Dictionary of Lost Words, a novel about the creation of definitions for a comprehensive English dictionary. Esme helps her father in the shed sorting and organizing slips of paper with words and suggested definitions. On the sly, she begins collecting and creating word slips that refer to women, their bodies, slang terms for females, and the like.
In The Bookbinder, twins Peggy and Maude, work at Oxford University Press in the bindery department. Devoid of means, they live on a narrowboat and spend their days gathering and folding the parts of a book and then stitching them together. It’s a repetitive job and Peggy seeks more. Their deceased mother had also worked there. She and Peggy amassed a collection of assorted foldings on their boat. When she can, Peggy reads parts of the pages at work and at home.
It’s 1914 and with the men going off to war and then returning home injured, there are new opportunities for women. Peggy volunteers to visit and read or write letters to these soldiers. On the ward, she meets Bastian, a Belgian who has been disfigured in the fighting. Her association with Bastian is both fulfilling and stimulating, but her real dream would be to attend Somerville College. How the lives of Peggy, Maude, Bastian, and their friends Gwen, Jack, and Tilda, unfold through the war years, is in part a leisurely stroll through the world of books and letters.
Williams’ novels are well researched. This one about women’s work in the bindery came about because of a small, discovered-by-chance reference to a bindery girl in an archive. The numerous details about the specifics of creating a book might cause some readers to get bogged down, but I found the whole process fascinating as well as the particulars of the tomes they were binding.
Williams dedicates herself to rendering women’s daily experiences, in this case during WWI. But the novel is also Peggy’s story of aspirations and dreams set against her growing love for Bastian. Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)
Note: Header image of twirling flower girls by JWFarrington.
Ann Patchett’s latest book is just out and it’s a good one. Part of it is built around Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, long a staple of high school English classes. When I was that age and we read Wilder’s play, I thought it tedious and mostly boring. Later in life, I saw several stage productions and liked it somewhat more. Recently, the Asolo Repertory Theater in Sarasota presented it and, it was wonderful! Whether it was age (mine) or the quality of the performance, I felt like I appreciated the play fully for the first time.
In Tom Lake, Lara, in a dreamlike way, slowly unwinds for her three adult daughters, the long-ago story of her brief career in summer stock and her love for now famous actor Peter Duke. She played the role of Emily in Our Town and another part in Fool for Love. Duke, older than Lara, is magnetic, attractive, and enamored of her, but perhaps not all he seems. With his steady reliable brother Sebastian and Lara’s dancer colleague Pallace, they make a foursome for swimming and tennis. Throughout, Lara tells her daughters more than she ever has about that summer, unspooling the events slowly, keeping them in suspense, but also holding back some memories too painful to divulge.
Set against the pandemic and the family’s cherry orchard in northern Michigan, Emily, Maisie, and Nell eagerly gobble up the details of their mother’s experiences interspersed with bouts of cherry picking. It’s a novel of young love, friendships made and ruptured, the lure of the stage, and the quiet joy of a stable marriage.
Lara played the role of Emily in Our Town in high school and then was sought out for Tom Lake. it’s helpful, but not essential, to be familiar with the play. Knowing it enriched the reading for me. With three sisters and a cherry orchard that soaks up hours and dollars, there are faint echoes of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.
Without a lot of fuss, Patchett captures what it was like during the pandemic when time was suspended. These three young women, a farmer, a vet in training, and an aspiring actress, are “trapped” on the farm helping out their parents since their workers have left. I liked this novel the more I got into it with its slight twists and ended up loving it. Recommended! (~JWFarrington)
A MEMOIR OF LOVE MIDST ILLNESS
Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life by Delia Ephron
Delia & Peter (NYPost)
More people probably know about Nora Ephron, Delia’s more famous novelist sister who died of acute leukemia in 2012. Delia Ephron is also a novelist and playwright. When Delia’s first husband died of cancer several years after her sister’s death, she never expected to find love again and so soon. She and Peter Rutter got together quickly; he a psychiatrist, she a writer who had forgotten about dating him in a much earlier stage of life.
There is joy in this memoir and pain and fear when Delia develops leukemia, her sister’s disease. Hers is a variation. The medical sections of this memoir are not for the fainthearted, but Delia’s path was smoothed and made more bearable by the legions of friends from all stages of her life and the unending encouraging support of new husband Peter. It’s a bracing, fast-paced, involving story, and if you have the courage for it, it’s well worth it. I read it in a day! (~JWFarrington)
A historical German drama, The Empress is about the making of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. In 1863, Elisabeth and her mother and sister Helene travel to meet the young Emperor Franz Joseph. Helene is expected to become the emperor’s bride. Instead Franz Joseph selects the unruly and rebellious Elisabeth.
Thus begins a battle of wills. Battles between Elisabeth and her mother-in-law Sophie who is accustomed to wielding all the power, between Elisabeth and Maximillian, Franz’s disruptive, but seductive younger brother, and between Elisabeth and Franz as she chafes against filling the mold of perfect empress.
The acting draws one in, the costumes are sumptuous, and it’s an engaging series. One might feel some comparisons with the Queen Charlotte season of Bridgerton; one review even praised the costumes here above those. Season 1 has eight episodes and a second season is planned. (~JWFarrington)
Manhattan (Amazon Prime–modest cost for ad free screening)
Abby & Charlie & Frank (Decider)
With the Oppenheimer movie attracting crowds, the availability of the 1981 documentary The Day After Trinity for streaming, it is probably not surprising that this 2014 series about the Manhattan Project popped up for viewing on Amazon. I don’t recall reading anything about it when it was first released.
In any case,Manhattanoffers a different perspective on life in Los Alamos. It has fictional characters, but their activities are based on historic events. There are two competing groups of scientists working on the atomic bomb, one under the loose direction of the determined, almost maniacal Frank Winter and the other guided by Reed Akley and the arrogant and ambitious Charlie Issacs. But Los Alamos is run by the Army, so there are soldiers and numerous rules and regulations to ensure the secrecy of the mission.
And there are the wives and families of the scientists, many reluctantly and grudgingly trying to create a life midst dust and dirt with few amenities. Liza Winter is a PhD botanist frustrated at having had to give up her career, a character I find especially appealing. Abby Isaacs, high-toned mother of a 3-year old, becomes a switchboard operator.
Passion, both scientific and sexual, drives this compelling drama, and the Chief Penguin and I are completely hooked on it. Season 1 has thirteen episodes and Season 2, ten episodes, each about 45 minutes long. Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)
Sarasota has a brand new bakery on Osprey Avenue. Two guys from Canada are using European methods to create some wonderful breads and pastries. The Chief Penguin and I, he the very particular baker in our household, visited their shop the other morning and joined a line of six people at the counter. We went home with a loaf of sourdough for me and a loaf of multigrain for him plus several kinds of croissants, plain, almond, and chocolate almond. The breads make delicious toothsome toast. The lovely croissants have a crisp outer layer and are the best ones I’ve eaten in some years. So, if you’re up for a new treat, gander down and meet the Bread Bandits!
For this sunny Sunday, I’m sharing a few photos from here and there in Florida.
I liked this beaten up rowboat artfully left on the edge of Sarasota Bay.
Hibiscus flowers abound in this tropical climate, and pink is a favorite.
Less common is the Tree of Gold (Tabebuia) which flowers forth as early as February.
For a skyward view of Florida’s greenery, experience the canopy walkway at Myakka State Park.
And who doesn’t like a rainbow, part of Mother Nature’s theatrics.
The richness of colors in Tiffany’s glass rival those in nature. This is just one example of his work at the Morse Museum in Winter Park, worth a visit!
Two Chihuly pieces and pair of robins by Ann Craven
One of our favorite places to visit while in Maine is the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland. Aside from their extension collection of works by three generations of the Wyeth Family, they have wonderful special exhibitions. We hoped we’d see the Edward Hopper/Andrew Wyeth exhibit, but it was only up for a short time, and we waited too long.
The White Dory 1955, Andrew Wyeth
Nevertheless, we always like seeing items in the permanent collection. The Farnsworth is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year with an exhibit entitled: New Voices from Maine in American Art. It includes both old and new acquisitions. Also on display was an exhibit of works presented by the Alex Katz Foundation. There is a range of styles and media. I was captivated by the pair of robins, the bright Chihuly glass, and by the new Wyeth acquisition above and these marvelously colorful juice glasses by Janet Fish.
Detail, Fruit Juice Glasses, 2005, Janet Fish
The Alex Katz Foundation gallery highlights several of Katz’s paintings (a cutout of a green cow, for one) plus works by friends and other artists. I like Katz’s pieces and find that his dramatic use of vibrant color draws the eye in.
Poppy, Alex Katz
His foundation’s mission is to encourage newer artists and to give their work greater notice in a museum setting. To date, the Katz Foundation has donated more than 1,000 works to various art museums.
VISIONS OF MAINE
Next door to the Farnsworth is the Blue Raven Gallery. Originally a bank, this red brick building boasts a gorgeous interior with arched windows and a beautiful ceiling. The current exhibit is photography by Peter Ralston.
Gallery interior with Ralston photos
I first came across Mr. Ralston in the pages of Down East magazine, and now I get his weekly e-mail of photographs and commentary. Growing up in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, his next door neighbors were Betsy and Andrew Wyeth. Once he was out of school and working as a photo journalist, the Wyeths enticed him to Maine. He never left, and today lives and works in Rockport. His images capture the beauty and the mystery of the Maine coast.
Sheep in a Boat (Ralston, Down East)
CASUAL LUNCH
On previous trips to Rockland, we’ve enjoyed lobster rolls at the Brass Compass Café. Sadly, at least for us, that space is now Sweet Dirt, a cannabis store. Left adrift, we walked along Main Street until we came to Clan Maclaren. Reminiscent of Ninth Street Bakery in Durham, NC, it’s a simple place and space.
Order your sandwich at the counter, help yourself to ice tea or coffee, and then bus your dishes when you finish. We sat at a table on the street and enjoyed lobster rolls in slightly chewy buns with a pickle and chips on the side. A somewhat unusual presentation, but the lobster was that-morning-fresh and delicate.
Note: Header photo is Cismont 1962 by Lynne Drexler at the Farnsworth Art Museum. Unattributed photos by JWFarrington.
