Tidy Tidbits: Gander, Oxford, New York

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This week’s blog brings together several compelling works. One is a musical related to 9/11 while the other two are books. One book is a wonderful novel about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, while the other is a cancer memoir, painful yet ultimately redeeming.

POWERFUL VIEWING: Remembering 9/11

Come from Away (Apple TV+)

Plane on the tarmac at Gander (appleinsider.com)

I doubt there is anyone of a certain age who doesn’t recall where he or she was on September 11, 2001. Come from Away (2013) is a musical about the passengers whose planes were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, and how they were embraced by the local residents.   Unabashedly energetic, even boisterous, it is also a compelling and heart-tugging perspective on five days of confusion, chaos, and community.  Folks of different religions, nationalities, and cultures were thrown together at a tragic, uncomfortable time.   

Members of the cast play multiple roles, switching back and forth from Gander community leaders to one of the many passengers.  Standouts for me were the female airline pilot played by Jenn Colella based on the real Beverley Bass; Joel Hatch as the mayor of Gander; and Beulah Davis, chief organizer and comforter, played by Astrid Van Wieren.  There is conflict, craziness, and coming together.  I found watching it an uplifting experience.  A live Broadway performance was filmed for this production and is aired with no breaks or intermission.  Highly recommended!

RECENT READING

THE LANGUAGE OF WOMEN

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams 

Author & her book jacket (betterreading.com.au)

I loved this novel and read it in just a day.  If you love words and their meanings and how they are used, you too will be fascinated.  Author Williams wondered how gender affects the use and understanding of words.   Given that the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was largely the work of older white Victorian men, she crafted a novel that reflects first a child’s, then a young woman’s participation in the creation of the dictionary.  Some of the characters such as Dr. James Murray, the chief architect, and several of the male lexicographers are historic figures. So is Edith Thompson, a historian who contributed definitions and quotations for many thousands of entries.

The novel focuses on Esme, a child of six, who hides under the sorting table collecting the occasional stray definition slip of paper. Over the course of publication of all the fascicles from A-B to Z , Esme becomes a woman.    Esme spends hours in the Scriptorium where the work is carried out.  As she gets older, she becomes involved in sorting mail, then checking quotes at the Bodleian and other libraries, and eventually taking on some editing and correction duties.  Lizzie, the household maid of all work, takes care of Esme and a friendship develops.

Esme is curious and full of questions and begins to wonder why some words, particularly those spoken by the lower classes, but not written down in books, are not to be included in the OED.  She gets a graphic education in colorful language from Mabel, a down-at-the-heels vendor in the local market and creates her own slips with quotations for these less than polite terms. An only child whose mother has died, Esme leads a sheltered life until she meets actress Tilda and her brother Bill, encounters the suffragist movement, and delivers pages to the typesetting room at the press where she meets Gareth, a handsome young compositor.

The novel relates the laborious process of releasing the letters of the alphabet in sections from 1888 to completion in 1928 alongside the coming-of-age of Esme from age six to middle age.  For Esme, the treatment of the suffragettes is disturbing, while the exodus of men to war means more work coupled with an all-consuming worry for their safety. How Williams weaves in the suffrage movement and the impact of WWI add to the richness of this story. But, some readers may be surprised at the ending and question if the author wraps things up too neatly.

Esme is not a common name. I wondered if Williams chose it as homage to J. D. Salinger’s notable story, For Esme with Love and Squalor, about a 13-year-old girl and a soldier during the Second World War.  

Like the process of compiling a comprehensive dictionary, this novel unfolds slowly and gradually.  I was committed to it from the first paragraphs.  Highly recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

CANCER AND BEYOND

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad

Author Jaouad (latimes.com)

Cancer memoirs often take one of two forms.  Either they are an account of battling and surviving the medical aspects of cancer or they are one individual’s experience and reflections which end just before death.  Ms. Jaouad’s memoir is somewhat different in that she was diagnosed with leukemia at age 22, just after completing college.  It was a delayed diagnosis, and she was by then very sick. She underwent massive chemotherapy treatments, endured numerous hospitalizations due to infections, and ultimately required a bone marrow transplant, a long and arduous process involving months of isolation.  

The medical details in the first part of her memoir are graphic, frightening and often unpleasant.  Yet she writes about them with candor, humility, and even occasional humor.  She was blessed with loving parents and an unbelievable new boyfriend who re-arranged his life to be her primary caregiver.  

What is perhaps more appealing is part two in which she attempts to regain a sense of normalcy.  All treatments are over, and she’s deemed able to travel and work again.  Yet her immune system is still, and may always be, fragile.  She tires easily and finds it difficult to focus and apply herself without the goal of the next medical procedure.  How to be normal again is not something the medical team has covered.  

Probably what saves her, or at least provides emotional and intellectual sustenance, is a solo cross-country journey she undertakes.  Dubbed the One Hundred Day Project, it is to visit individuals who wrote or e-mailed her after she published a regular column in the New York Times. Meeting these almost strangers, Jaouad gains perspective on herself and reflects on how she was often self-centered and needy in some of her relationships.  I found this section of the book satisfying as she finally goes beyond her four years of treatment and comes into her own as a more well-rounded person.  I wouldn’t recommend this book to everyone, but some readers may find her journey amazing and her sprightly writing a gift.  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo of morning clouds ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Maine Writers: Yesterday & Today

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Addendum to Part 1: Contemporary Authors

Richard Ford

Richard Ford (theguardian.com)

The author of short stories, novels, and nonfiction, Richard Ford is probably best known for his four novels featuring Frank Bascombe.  Bascombe first appears in The Sportswriter (1986) and next in Ford’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, Independence Day, published in 1995, then in two later novels.  I read and very much enjoyed Independence Day.  Richard Ford lives in Boothbay; fellow Mainer Richard Russo lives in Portland.  In my last post, I erred on Russo’s residence, and it was Ford who was recommended for inclusion in my blog by my friend.

Lily King

Lily King (panmacmillan.com.au)

When browsing in Print, a Portland bookstore I like, I discovered that another favorite author, Lily King, lives in Maine.  In Portland, in fact.  Her earlier award-winning novel, Euphoria, loosely based on Margaret Mead and some of her colleagues, was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by the New York Times.  I loved that novel of relationships and more recently, enjoyed Writers & Lovers, a coming into age and love story set in the familiar, to me, Cambridge environs.  King’s first book of short stories, Five Tuesdays in Winter, comes out this fall. 

MAINE AUTHORS  Part 2: Writers of Long Ago

William Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Henry W. Longfellow (mount auburn.org)

There was a time when every 7th or 8th grade English class read Evangeline, one of Longfellow’s long poems.  And many school children also read or heard Paul Revere’s Ride as part of learning about the Revolutionary War.  Longfellow also wrote the epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha (1855), about a Native American chief.  A writer, traveler, and linguist, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an important figure in 19th century America.  Born in Portland, he grew up and lived for thirty years in a house that today is a museum.  The Chief Penguin and I toured the house several years ago and enjoyed learning more about his life and his family.

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909)

Sarah Orne Jewett (peoplepill.com)

Sarah Orne Jewett was a novelist and short story writer known for literary regionalism.  She put more stock in descriptions of country life than in plot.  Her best-known work is probably the novella, The Country of the Pointed Firs, published in 1896. I read this book years ago with the library book group at Penn.  Other noted works are A Country Doctor and A White Heron.  She was born and died in South Berwick near the Maine coast and was the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Bowdoin College in 1901.

Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

Rachel Carson (smithsonianmag.com)

A marine biologist, writer, and later conservationist, Rachel Carson’s most popular work is Silent Spring (1962) about the harmful effects of insecticide spraying.  An earlier work, The Sea Around Us (1951), won a National Book Award.  Carson was born in Pennsylvania and lived in Maryland for some years, but she summered for 12 years on Southport Island.  We have gone to Southport every year for the past 30 years.  I always pause to read the plaque to Carson at the Newagen Seaside Inn where she was a frequent guest.  After her death, her ashes were scattered into the sea from here.  

E. B. White (1899-1985)

E. B. White (historylink.org)

E. B. White, a noted author of essays and children’s books, also wrote poems and brief sketches.  He was a reporter and freelance writer before joining the staff of the New Yorker in 1927. Born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., he lived and worked in North Brooklin, Maine, sending in his regular columns and pieces from there.  I have fond recollections of my father first reading Stuart Little to me.  Our third-grade teacher read Charlotte’s Web to us, and I read it again later for myself.  It’s my favorite of his children’s works.  White also revised Strunk’s The Elements of Style which became a bible for aspiring writers.  White was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom and also a special Pulitzer Prize citation.

May Sarton (1912-1995)

May Sarton (goodreads.com)

Belgian-American by birth, May Sarton was a poet, novelist, and memoirist.  When a child, she and her parents moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. She lived there and in New Hampshire before spending the last five years of her life in York, Maine.  Sarton was a prolific writer and considered by some, Carolyn Heilbrun for one, to be a pioneer in the field of women’s autobiography. Heilbrun cited the publication of Journal of a Solitude in 1973.  Some years ago, I binge read quite a few of her novels and memoirs.  Ones that stand out are Shadow of a Man, The Magnificent Spinster, and Endgame: A Journal of the Seventy-ninth Year.  Sarton brought a laser focus and a very personal perspective to issues of friendship and love and the vagaries of aging.

A NOTE ON PORTLAND BOOKSTORES

Portland, Maine supports three notable independent bookstores, each of which is worth a visit.  Probably the best known is Sherman’s on Exchange Street which is just one of about five stores in this group.  Sherman’s began in Bangor and has a big presence in Boothbay Harbor, with other stores in Camden, Damariscotta, and Freeport.  They sell lots of new books, but its larger stores are also a source for children’s toys and games, some housewares, along with stationery and other paper goods.  

(Facebook.com)

Longfellow Books, centrally located in Monument Square, has been around for about 20 years and is spacious and inviting with attractive storefront windows.  During the pandemic, they were closed except for curbside pick-up, but in recent months have more fully opened.  These folks are passionate about books and stock new titles plus used ones and have an especially colorful children’s corner.  When browsing, I always find a title here that I’ve not seen elsewhere.  Magazines and a good selection of note cards round out their offerings.

Print, located on Congress Street in the East End, is the newest sibling in the neighborhood, having opened in 2016.  Its co-owners bring a wealth of bookselling experience and are also the offspring of writer parents.  One, Emily Russo, is the daughter of Richard Russo. Print is cozy and welcoming (I was greeted as soon as I stepped through the door) with a well-chosen selection of current fiction and nonfiction, sections on Maine writers, and a slew of cooking and baking books, especially about pies. For its size, they have an impressive section of middle reader books.  My 9-year-old granddaughter is a voracious reader, so I’m always on the lookout for books for her.

Attracting readers and providing great customer service are hallmarks of what keeps a bookstore in business.  To some extent, each of these stores has book signings and author talks and will order books not in stock upon request.  Some also publish free e-mail newsletters. There is no requirement to live nearby to receive their e-mails.  I receive Longfellow Books’ weekly update on recommended new titles out in hardback and paper and also a quarterly e-mail from Three Lives & Company in New York.  These newsletters are a fun and easy way to learn about what’s new and get the opinions of various bookstore staff.

Note: Header photo of Maine’s waters ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Maine Writers Today

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COMETH FALL

Afternoon light on Little Christmas Cove

The past few days have been breezy and cool with some sun.  The light is different, the air is clearer and drier.  Fall is sneaking up on us.  Masses of goldenrod line the roadway and here and there a lone red maple leaf lies in the dirt.  I see only tall pines when I look around, but surely a maple tree hides somewhere about. 

The coming of fall for me always prompted a return to focused work.  I liked the sense of buckling down, tackling new projects, and turning more inward.   Autumn in the Northeast encourages this.  In a week, I’ll be back in Florida where sunny warm days invite one to linger outside, to defer serious pursuits.  Florida’s fall doesn’t ever arrive until November.  I miss the pronounced change of seasons.

Richard Russo (authorsguild.org)

MAINE AUTHORS

Part 1:  Contemporary Writers

One of my regular readers reminded me that novelist Richard Russo lives in Maine in the Boothbay region and encouraged me to mention this in a blog post.  Russo won a Pulitzer for Empire Falls, which is probably his best-known work.  I’ve not read that one, but have read his first novel, Mohawk, and highly recommend Bridge of Sighs, published in 2007.  A 60-year-old man who’s lived all his life in a small-town, travels to Italy, partly to visit a childhood friend who escaped to the wider world.  It’s an expansive, totally engaging book as Charles Lacy and his wife embark on an odyssey of adventure and reflection.  Much of Russo’s writing is semi-autobiographical in nature.

Stephen King is undoubtedly Maine’s most famous and probably most read author.  He lives in Bangor, but spends winters in Sarasota, Florida.  Consequently, his book signings and appearances are regularly announced in my local newspaper.  I am not a fan of either horror or supernatural novels and admit to never having read him.  Author of 53 novels, with his best seller being The Shining from 1977, each new book is greeted with long lines of eager purchasers.  

Stephen King (nme.com)

Without a doubt, my favorite contemporary Maine author is another Pulitzer Prize winner, Elizabeth Strout.  I have read many of her novels from the first one, Amy and Isabelle about a mother’s fraught relationship with her teenage daughter to Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton to Olive, Again.  Strout delineates the complexities of small-town life for those with meager means and limited opportunities.  The Olive books are sort of linked short stories with some characters appearing more than once. The second book finds Olive dealing with the exigencies of aging.   She is a sometimes crochety and cantankerous woman, but offers occasional doses of compassion.  I found her an intriguing companion.

Elizabeth Strout (goodreads.com)

On a different note, Paul Doiron explores backwoods Maine in his crime series about a game warden named Mike Bowditch.  A former editor of Down East Magazine, Doiron has now penned twelve novels in the series. A few years ago, I read his first book, The Poacher’s Son, and gained an appreciation for aspects of rural life in Maine that many tourists don’t experience.  Doiron lives in Camden.

(pauldoiron.com)

Another current Maine writer, whose books I have noted on bookstore shelves, is Tess Gerritsen.  Researching her for this blog, I discovered she has both an interesting heritage and an unusual path to authordom.  Born in San Diego, she’s the daughter of a Chinese immigrant and a Chinese American chef.  Prompted by her parents, she pursued a career in medicine and became a general physician.  Early on, she liked reading romance novels and so tried her hand at writing and publishing a short story.  Initially she wrote romantic thrillers and then medical thrillers and more recently, a police detective and medical examiner series called Rizzoli and Isles.  Prolific in output, her books have sold more than 25 million copies!  Gerritsen also lives in Camden.  What have I been missing?

Tess Gerritsen (amazon.com)

Who are your favorite Maine authors? What do you prefer reading, fiction or nonfiction? If fiction, which genres?

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

Magic Moments in Maine

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FUN WITH GRANDKIDS

This past week our son and family made their annual visit to Maine, always a high point of the summer.  We all visited the botanical gardens where the girls, 9 and 5, love the children’s garden.  The small playhouse is their first stop, followed by getting in the rowboat and trying to work the oars.  This time they also flexed their muscles to hoist a lobster trap from a small pond.  Next is a walk along the shoreline path to spend a few moments at the fairy village and, on the way back, a last chance for the playhouse.  On the way into the gardens, we paused to view Roskva, one of the giant trolls, but they weren’t particularly drawn to it; thus, we skipped seeing the other four.  

Roskva troll by Thomas Dambo

Another favorite attraction is the Railway Village Museum on the outskirts of Boothbay.  It was closed last year due to Covid so this was a return after two years. The biggest hit here is riding an old train on a loop around the village property.  Dotted with historic Maine buildings from the mid-1800s to early 1900s, the village includes a schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, and a furnished house.  The electric washer with a hand wringer proved to be especially fascinating.  And old black locomotive and a caboose add to the overall experience as you can clamber aboard.  Also appealing to our girls was the extensive model railroad exhibit with numerous trains on multiple tracks midst town and industry scenes.  And just to add live interest, the village boasts two goats. Railway Village is a fun place for all ages from toddlers to adults!

None of us, children, parents, and grandparents, ever tire of gazing at the waves crashing on the rocky shore, watching for lobster boats checking their traps, or stooping on the pebbly beach to collect shells and sea glass.  

Gazing at the tide!

The hardy souls in our family, our son and his older daughter, braved the cold water on the cove side.  Everyone told them the ocean water was much warmer this year than last; nonetheless, it’s very cold water.  Tim and E went swimming on the last day of their visit even though the air temperature was only 65!

The girls and I also colored the world map tablecloth (a companion to the U.S. one we had last year), played a game of riddles, watched F create a show starring two of her stuffed animals, read books together and separately, and did jigsaw puzzles.  F wrote slips with a different riddle on it for each of us to put at our places for dinner one night.  I provided the spelling, and she did the writing!  They also went miniature golfing one afternoon, walked a nature trail near the local beach, swam in a local pool, and made their annual pilgrimage to Uncle Willy’s Candy Shoppe in Camden, two floors of sugar-laden treats.  We all went out to dinner one evening and out to lunch another day to ensure that their mother had ample opportunity for steamed lobster and at least one lobster roll!

CULINARY CORNER

An honored tradition is for me and the girls to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast.  Each year E and F get more adept at measuring, mixing, and pouring the batter.  The result is tasty pancakes made with a big dose of love and served with real Maine maple syrup.

Our older granddaughter is a foodie and over the course of this past year has become quite the baker and cook.  She has made cupcakes and cakes on her own and is developing a repertoire of chicken dishes and other mealtime fare.  She’s also the proud owner of several cookbooks.  One of her favorites, exceptionally well put together with helpful details and illustrations, is The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs.  

With very little assistance, she tackled breakfast tacos.  They were a delicious combination of scrambled eggs, crispy bacon squares, salsa, and grated cheese.  

In July, the girls and their parents were on Long Island and learned to love steamed clams.  I was happy to turn over the kitchen to our son one evening.  He produced a wonderful plate of steamed clams over linguine.  The clams were Maine local and very fresh, and the dish was perfect!  Certainly, one of the best renditions I’ve ever had.  Including my memorable first taste in Trastevere, Rome, on a late summer’s evening thirty years ago!

Maine little neck clams over linguine

Time marches on, sometimes fleetingly, and the time we grandparents have with our granddaughters is so very precious. It’s fascinating each visit to observe how they’ve grown and matured, what their latest interests are, and how their views on the world and themselves have shifted. One of the best gifts is sharing just a bit in their lives, thanks to their marvelous parents!

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)