Monthly Archives: July 2008

You Never Know What You’ll Find at the Festival!

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Sandwiched between two days of heavy rain, Old Lyme’s Midsummer Festival opened Friday evening with several art receptions and a concert by The Shiny Lapel Trio on the banks of the Lieutenant River and continued through Saturday, ending with a spectacular fireworks display behind Center and Lyme-Old Lyme Middle Schools.

The weather was flawless from start to finish allowing culinary master Dorie Greenspan and locally-based author Luanne Rice both to draw huge crowds.

Others were tempted by the sumptuous offerings of fruit, vegetables, flowers, herbs, foods, and finery at the En Plein Air Market at the Florence Griswold Musuem.  Art was everywhere to admire, intrigue, and buy at The Old Lyme Inn and the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts.


Kicking Off With a Concert: The setting was supreme and the sky spectacular as a record crowd enjoyed the lively concert given by the Shiny Lapel Trio on the grounds of the Florence Griswold Museum Friday night.


Dorie Demonstrates:  the queen of baking and more creates a delectable lemon pound cake for the assembled crowd of onlookers.


Lovely Luanne Rice charms each one of her numerous visitors in the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts.  Here (from left to right) mother and daughter Marie Ann Heft and Paulette Preble of Chester have their copies of Luanne’s latest book signed by the author.


Time for Tasting: a festival visitor samples something fruity at the En Plein Air market.


A couple visiting Old Lyme’s Midsummer Festival (above) for the very first time on Saturday strolls casually past the Lyme Art Association grounds blissfully unaware that two enormous bulls are sitting quietly just yards from them.


Serving as models for a number of artists and would-be painters, the bulls were remarkably tolerant of the heat, admiring adults, and curious children.


Drawing and sketching bulls from all angles.


Cooking up World Class Chili, Old Lyme’s firemen give LymeLine a big smile!


Art A-Plenty:  Bruno Ahnert stands by a display of his own work, alongside that of many fellow artists at the Old Lyme Inn.


And last but not least … the LymeLine table!

“The Sour Cherry Surprise” by David Handler

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A few years ago I met David Handler at the Lyme Public Library.  I had just finished the Stewart Hoag series and was gratifyingly entering the world of Berger and Mitry.  Now, six engaging books into the series, I am, more than ever, hard-pressed to pick a favorite and write just one review … but I’ll try.

I’ll get to Hoagie, whom I also love, at a later date.

For now, I will chose the latest in the Berger Mitry series, “The Sour Cherry Surprise”, as the archetypal Handler.

As a presumable homage to the great John D. MacDonald , each title is a color: “The Cold BlueBlood,” “The Hot Pink Farmhouse,” “The Bright SilverStar,”  “The Sweet Golden Parachute,” and now, “The Sour Cherry Surprise.”

Handler is exceedingly worthy of this colorful legacy.

As LymeLine’s Arts Editor Linda Ahnert observes, one of the joys inherent to the series is its local setting.  It is great fun to see a Porsche whip past Tiffany Farm or cookies delivered to the red house overseeing the salmon ladders at the base of Mount Archer.  I was especially pleased to see my favorite gastronome, Christine, from “Fromage” in this book.  All of it serves to cosily ensconce us in the world Handler creates.
Even so , that is hardly where the appeal ends.  As I learned from Handler’s first series, he would be irresistible whatever the locale.  His characters and the ease with which we find ourselves both ingrained in and heartened by their lives is a function of Handler’s literary skill, which extends beyond simple neighborhood recognizability.
His style is as marvelous as his stories.  The lingo is always amusingly hip.  Think, “Wow Man” and, “Prepare to get funky.” The chuckles are rampant and there is a laugh-out-loud joke about Groundhog Day.  Handler is cleverly funny.
“The Sour Cherry Surprise” is one of the best in the series for many reasons.  Not the least of which is the amorous incertitude between the protagonists.  It is a step back for Des and Mitch … and a subsequent step forward in the evolution of the series.

Like any couple, a great deal of the appeal lies in their attraction.  (Think Scarlett and Rhett, “I love you.”  “I hate you.”  “I love you.”)  To have them immediately marry at this early juncture could shorten the lifespan of the series by putting a key element out to pasture prematurely.

However, the idea to re-boot their relationship is a bit too abrupt. “The Sweet Golden Parachute” ends with engagement and three short months later, they have moved on.  (Well, they are lying to themselves that they have, obviously.)
I initially felt a bit excluded.  Had I missed a book?  What transpired tantalizingly unbenownst to the hapless reader?  My qualms were eventually quieted by a stellar, fast-moving maelstrom of activity.  Handler mixes a mean plot.
That said, the changes make this a better book.  Nothing is a done deal.  We honestly don’t know what will happen.  After all, what fun is a “who-dun-it” if you already know?
Will Trooper Mitry and Mr. Berger reunite?  Is it too late now that other lovers are involved?  More importantly, what the heck is going on down by the river?!  Happy to say that you don’t really guess.
The plot is classic Handler.  Very comfortably amusing and scarily real.  Both frighteningly relevant and lovingly small town.  The characters are both familiar and surprising.
In a world of peripatetic fiction, we can come home to Mr. Handler’s books … and I’m quite pleased to say that we find him still at the proverbial top of his game.

“Margarettown” by Gabrielle Zevin

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“Margaretttown’s” publication preceded “Elsewhere” (reviewed last week) by a few months, so one assumes that the mind of Ms. Zevin is a whirlwind of creativity.

“Margarettown” is her adult novel and, while it has many redeeming qualities, it is not quite as clever as “Elsewhere.”

It is, however, a book that grabs your attention and holds it even when you have finished.

What it loses is in being neither a fairy-tale nor a traditional tome.

While either incarnation would be appreciable, it does not quite make the cut as both.

A man, whose name we never quite know other than his first initial, falls in love with a woman named Margaret Towne.  She is a red-haired beauty from the school where he is a teacher and he falls hard.  They date, marry, separate, have a child, then both die.  I am not ruining the book by telling you this, trust me.*  The life lines are so twisted that any supposed plot-spoiler is innocuous at best.
What is interesting is how we see this story unfold.  We see it as both real and unreal.  We see it through her eyes, his eyes, and the eyes of their daughter.  Different lives, loves and incarnations of both are rampant.
Margaret is figuratively, and quite possibly literally, six different women.  May, Mia, Grete, Maggie, Marge and old Margaret are simultaneously cognizant of their own lives and each other.  Are they all the woman we meet initially, Maggie, or all they all someone else?  Whom do we meet getting married?  Are they people Maggie was and/or will become?  How old is she really when Maggie dies at 35?
As confusing as Maggie is, she is still part if a larger picture.  Her husband’s life is affected and effective as an extension of hers.  We meet his loves and groan (well, I did ) at his decision to pursue Maggie.  He and his sister and ex-fiancé all figure prominently in his, Maggie’s and Jane’s life.
I found all of this a bit muddled and much preferred the last bit when Jane, their daughter, presents a more normal version of events.  I found it more compelling to view the story as a realistic situation with unidentifiable quirky edges than the other way round.
In fact, my favorite part is when Jane is till in utero.  She has a twin brother, Ian, with whom she shares thoughts and it is wonderfully heart-wrenching to listen to them.  This is the vein, in which more of the story should flow.  Jane and the unborn Ian are outsiders (insiders actually) eavesdropping, as we are.  Their confusion is entirely relatable and I found them to be the two most likable characters by far.
As the reader, it is more enticing to sense the proverbial ghost in the machine than have it spelled out definitively in the machination themselves.  “Margarettown“ is disconcertingly both predictably ordinary and implausible.  A substantive move in either direction would improve the story.
* If I have given away too much, you can always hope that the Carcharadon CarchariasI’ve been looking over my shoulder for since “Close To Shore“ (6.27.08) decides on Critic Carpaccio for lunch …

“Elsewhere” by Gabrielle Zevin

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What a fantastically thoughtful creative book.  Oh, that life after death were this.  As the main character says, “If only he (Hamlet) knew what we know.!”

No one would be afraid of the other side, or squander time – wherever it may be had – again.

Elizabeth Marie Hill is a 15-yearold girl who dies after being hit by a cab.  After a week in a coma, she wakes to find herself in a bunk on a boat.  She thinks she is dreaming, naturally, but by the time she disembarks in Elsewhere, she realizes she is dead.Everyone she meets is dead.  The people, the pets … everyone.

The interesting part is what is happening to the dead.  In Life, you age progressively, in Death you age regressively.Liz dies at 15 and will spend 15 years in Death getting younger and younger, until at seven-days-old, she returns to Life.  She will be swaddled, placed gently in the river, and be born again.

Elsewhere is what you make of it.  You can choose the vocation that makes you happiest.  You can live where and with whom you choose.  Pets can communicate.  Old friends and relatives are approachable.  It is fascinating to see the interactions between people of all ages.Upon your death at 90, you may be reunited with your husband, who passed away 30 years before.  If he died at 60, and has been there for 30 years, he is now 30.  It creates the most visually remarkable and wonderfully romantic pairings.  It is who you are on the inside that is relevant.  Love is love – whatever your current physical manifestation.

There are ways to communicate with the living, but they are inadvisable and often cause more harm than good.  For a while, Liz cannot reconcile her situation and spends months watching her loved ones through change-operated binoculars.
When she makes peace with her current reality , her ‘death’ becomes as fulfilling as the potential in the life she lost.  She will not graduate high school nor grow old and have children, but she does get her driver’s license and meet her grandmother ( who is now in her 30’s).  Liz falls in love and finds her calling.
The creativity of Gabrielle Zevin‘s plot is mesmerizing.  Life and Death are reflections of one another.  She likens their state to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”  The human people and fairies live side by side.  They’re together and they’re apart … the fairy world might be a dream, but maybe the real world is too.
I will mention that although it is a Young Adult’s book, this could not possibly diminish its appeal to adults in any way.

“Innocent Traitor” by Alison Weir

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Wait a sec’ – let me finish blowing my nose.  You know it’s coming, but the last page of Innocent Traitor is a tearjerker.

Lady Jane Grey is beheaded on February 12, 1554.

Since grade school, I knew it would happen, but it’s just such a waste of a sweet girl.

When Henry VIII dies he leaves three succesors to the throne of England.  In order of ascendency , Edward VI then “Bloody” Mary, then Elizabeth I .
Henry VIII’s England was Protestant.  His widow Katherine Parr, a protestant convert, brings the new religion to power.  When she dies, few want to the crown to revert to catholicism, as it certainly would do under Queen Mary.
Political subterfuge abounds and a plot to put the protestant great niece of Henry VIII on the throne comes to fruition.  She reigns for nine days before Mary takes back the throne and condemns the “Nine Day Queen” to death.
The Nine Day Queen is Jane, who becomes Lady Dudley, having been politically married to a spoiled mama’s boy.  Jane is a 15-year-old pawn in a power-hungry mens’ game and pays the ultimate price.
In Innocent Traitor, we grow up with Jane.  We see her live through the eyes of many people and grow to admire her.  Even as a toddler, she has amazingly inappropriate expectations thrust upon her.  Her short life is so different from the lives of our children today that early on, it is impressed upon us how hard life could be in the 16th century.  Even for, or especially for, the peerage.
Her self-serving, conniving parents set out to make the best of her through marriage.  She committed the sin of being born female so she can be of no other use to them.  She must be molded into the ideal wife with which her family can barter.  She can gain power and prestige for her family as a bargaining chip. They prod and poke and abuse her. They polish and educate her, while trying to break her spirit.
Part of their plan backfires as she is a very bright girl and through her education comes to recognize the foolish, immoral behavior that permeates the court.  The more she learns, the more adamant she becomes that her integrity should not be compromised.
One can barely imagine a girl who would be less interested in money, power and rank.
Jane wants nothing whatsoever to do with her parents’ machiavellian proposals and is never happier than with her beloved nanny and her studies.
Sadly, the choice is never hers to make and she must obey.  Jane must do what she abhors until the end, when she makes a decision to honor her convictions at any cost.
Her innocence abounds and it is heartbreaking to see her framed, denounced, and ultimately killed for the mercenarial actions of others.