Category Archives: Literature in the Lymes

“Evening” by Susan Minot

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After three marriages, Ann Lord is the mother of five children.  She is well-off, living in Cambridge, Mass., and Connecticut.  She is a strong-willed, if reticent, woman.  She also has cancer and is dying.

As she remembers parts of her life, we float back in time with her to her most definitive adult experience.  July 1954 was a pivotal month in her self-actualization and, from that point, Minot takes us through a swirl of Ann’s recollections.  Some are coherent, some less so, but none are uninteresting.
Having lost a loved one to cancer as, sadly, many of us have, it is bittersweet to read “Evening.”  The stories are there, the characters are strong, but the gift of Minot’s story is to be present in Ann’s head as she succumbs.  We know how she feels, what she is thinking, and hearing, and seeing.  This story is constructed entirely in her own mind and it is a rare privilege to be there.
As Ann recalls her life in bits and pieces, we feel her regret for a specific relationship that really never was.  Most of Ann’s adult loves seem to be compromised by this one encounter and Ann never admits this to anyone but herself, and, by extension, to us.  In July of 1954, Ann is 25.  She attends the wedding of her good friend on an island in Maine and meets a man against whom all others will be judged unfavorably ever after.
Whether he is ultimately deserving is immaterial.  We behold the weekend in all its extravagant pulchritude and ultimate horror through Ann.  We are there with that intangible feel of boundless summer evenings and mercurial romance.  We remember that rush of joy that holds you in the pit of your stomach when anticipation equals reality.
As she falls in love, we meet the Ann with whom we will share her final days.
As Ann’s kaleidoscope of memories crashes around her, we piece together her life.  Progressing from this pivotal weekend, we envisage the personal walls she assembles and the family who will try to sidestep them.  We meet her husbands and her children with each.  We see the friendships she maintains and the pains she keeps silent, but there is little she remembers as abundantly as this first weekend.
Nothing else is spelled out as distinctly … and the story is better for it.We are a little lost in the recesses of her mind, as indeed, is she – but her final freedom is ours as well.

“The Lace Reader” by Boronia Barry

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“The Lace Reader” was originally self-published.  Once word got out – the publishing houses picked it up.  Justifiable hubris indeed!  I read the entire book in two days … Mom- what’s for dinner?  Nothing kids – I’m reading … (sort of kidding).

The minute I finished the last bit and realized what had had really been going on, I wanted to start again.

Three generations of Whitney women live in the town of Salem, Mass.  A beautiful town with a history of burning intelligent, difficult women at the stake; it seems a perfect fit that these three should live here.  The Whitney women have,” taken quirky to a new level of achievement.”  They fight against their internal demons as much as the awful and wonderful people in their lives.A proverbial witch-hunt on all levels.We find ourselves in a mysterious realm where we do not know exactly what has happened to Eva, the matriarch of the family.  When she disappears, we’ll need to know why and how.
The people with the answers are having struggles with the situational realities of their own lives and the difficulties of their familial interactions.  The matriarch, Eva, may or may not have died.  The youngest Whitney, Towner, drags herself home post-surgery from California for the possible funeral.  May, in the middle, is a famous local recluse.You are never entirely sure from whose point of view the truth comes.  Towner freely admits all accounts are suspect,” never believe me. I lie all the time.”  Who should we believe?  Towner, who suffers the horrible loss of her twin?  Her potential lover, the new town cop?  May, who never leaves her golden retriever-infested island ?  Cal, the dreadful, hypocritical preacher?
To add to this hotbed of turmoil is mystical confusion – all three women are psychic.  (Not all thrilled about it.)  They intuit some occurrences by reading pieces of Ipswich Lace and we wade right in with them.  We need to take everything with a grain of salt and it is mesmerizing trying to decipher the internal/external dialogue that will hopefully explain what has happened.
I love finding a literary world that you’d like to be a part of…  The last was my eldest daughter’s copy of “The Penderwick’s” (by Jeanne Birdsall) in which you could smell summer freedom and thick green canopies of leaves on every page.”The Lace Reader” is the same.You can taste the North Shore’s salty breeze and smell low tide.  You can hear the stampede of golden retrievers romping on May’s island.  When Rafferty takes Towner to dinner at a floating restaurant,(which is really there by the way), you would give anything to be sitting on the gunwale with her.With all of them – aside from Cal, who I would be unable to restrain myself from pulverizing and I’m sure you’ll agree – Mrs Barry depicts elaborately prosaic characters in very poetic terms.  A constant proliferation of insight makes them people to befriend.

In addition to feeling close to the Whitneys, you’ll find Barry’s story-line is superb.  So clever.  Towner, May, Eva and most all of the peripheral characters are so believable and exceptional that the anticipatory feeling of solution is tangible.  You look around every corner with them.You’ll re-read bits to make sure you are where you think you are.  It’s quite something to stride through this tangled web that is a mastery of skilled writing.  Eventually the web becomes a distinctly focused patch of intricately-threaded lace.  Stepping back, we are thunderstruck suddenly to see clearly … and even Towner realizes that,” the spell is broken … [we are] free.”

“Mistress of The Art of Death” by Ariana Franklin

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Dr. Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar is the heroine of this mystery set in 1171 medieval England.

Not for a minute does this seem as unrealistic as it should.

Adelia, a medical examiner from Italy is ahead of her time.  Quite far ahead actually.  Women in medieval times were not doctors. They were not openly feisty, intelligent, belligerent, fearless, judgmental and accusatory.  (One would like to think in private they could enjoy these delightful character traits – I do).

An adopted daughter of Italian physicians, Adelia is schooled as a doctor at the School of Medicine in Salerno.  She studies death.When King Henry II requests that a doctor be sent from Italy to help solve a mystery involving the murders of local children in Cambridge, a trio arrives that has a hard time blending in with the crusaders and pilgrims of medieval England.  Adelia, Simon of Naples (a prominent Jew) and Mansur (a Moor) are just marvelous.  The reader likes them immediately even if the locals do not.

Medicine was at odds with the church at this time and Adelia must practice quietly though, “other doctors knew the use of Adelia’s work, and it was an open secret among the lay authorities.”  This proves difficult in England as she gets involved in the proliferation of illnesses in town and becomes an object of derision to the powers-that-be.The Prior is horrified upon finding to whom he owes his life, “a woman, a woman …only indebtedness, the knowledge that without her ministration he would have died, had stopped him from ignoring her or stealing away…”  We worry that she will be tattled upon.  We worry that she will be unfairly treated.  We worry that no one will see how lovely she is.  We do not, however, worry that she will not prevail which makes the plot more fun than angst-ridden.

The central issues encircling the murders (which are really quite awful) are myriad and reflect upon all of the central characters. Religion, politics, equality – the usual triumvirate, all play to blur the lines of the basic plot which is the murders . Who is killing these children?  Someone from the Church?  The Jews?  A Crusader?
Adelia studies the bodies to interpret the crimes.  “ I am not here to pray for them [Adelia] said, I have come to speak for them.”  Like Kay Scarpetta (Patricia Cornwell’s brave forensic doctor), Adelia brings an objectivity to death that opens our eyes and makes the story more tolerable.  As we learn to admire her forensic and deductive skills, we also witness her falling in love with a horse-faced child, a repugnantly stinky dog and a surprising man.Throughout the book, she tracks many plausible suspects and the conclusion is thankfully not obvious.  The benefit of being kept guessing until the end is that trivial details are not ignored.  You’ll regret skipping pages.

Adelia is quite the pistol and her tenacity is much needed at the awful climax when, “courage returned to Adelia.  And hatred.  And ferocity.  No pain on earth could stop her.”  We are right there in the horror with her and thank goodness for a happy ending.Phew!  When you are done shaking off a veritable plethora of “willies”, you will realize that you have just read a rather good book.

“Freddy and Fredericka” by Mark Helprin

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I quail to think that I may not be able to do this book justice.  Mark Helprin is a staggeringly great writer.  If I had to pick a favorite (thankfully I don’t), he would be it.  His life experience – Harvard, Oxford, Princeton, Army, Airforce, Navy – would be enough of a reason to hear what he has to say, but his scope of experience is minimal compared to his imagination, sense of humor, and descriptions of beauty.

Frederick and Fredericka (the future King and Queen of England) are marvelously both ludicrous and everyman.  The trials and tribulations they face when sent on a quest to save themselves and their thrones are tremendously and imaginatively idiosyncratic.  You’ll see what I mean when they get their front teeth knocked out before meeting Hell’s Angel-types in Newark, N.J. …
The Queen banishes them both to the Garden State, “as penance for departure from the royal ideal and instruction therein.”  Thus the Prince and Princess of Wales find themselves, “forced to travel through America penniless and incognito, with the object of reacquiring the deviant former colonies for the British Crown.”They find themselves in ridiculously far-fetched situations, that, amazingly, seem appropriate and life-altering.  We can’t but hope they will learn from these experiences … and they do.  Oh, they do, causing Freddy to muse, “though it is hard to be a king, it is harder yet to become one.”
Freddy is the much maligned heir to the British throne.  He is a bumbling, silly, out-of-touch, pretty boy, who has no depth of character.Or is he?He could also be a savior.  A real, true king who will take his country to a new chapter of honesty and compassion.

Fredericka is the Princess of Wales, a seemingly spoiled, dim-witted, bubble-headed, blonde, aristocratic fool, who metamorphoses into a hard-working, moral, well-read, brilliantly-insightful woman.

With a strength of character they’ve never before had to find, Freddy and Fredericka must survive and prevail over a myriad of difficulties: pimps, the afore-mentioned dental problems, police chases, frigid Chicago winters, and neither truffles nor pate of any kind … how will they cope?
They work in Florida as fake-hygenists, travel with hobos across the country, wash dishes, clean public lavatories, lay tracks, bathe in steel vats, enter politics, read voraciously – and grow.  They rise above and fall in love. The harder they work, the happier they become: Fredericka suddenly realizes ” we will be happy doing this while all the toffs in England lie around in their beds.”
Freddy and Fredericka are born anew and when we are not laughing too hard to breathe, we are staggering under the weight of  stunningly beautiful country, glorious love, and powerful morality.
They take a joy from their trials that separates them from their past before it brings them full circle.  They entertain thoughts of never going back, speaking of it, “many times, what if they simply were to stay this way? … They knew they wouldn’t – it was not their destiny – but they considered that they might.”
Without giving up that joy, they still will succeed. Helprin’s tale of when they do and what they do and where they go from there is simply wonderful, leading us ultimately to, “a long flight … (that Freddy and Fredericka) had started on high,” (until) “down (they) … glided, into the blue over England.”

The Isobel Dalhousie Series by Alexander McCall Smith

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“The Sunday Philosophy Club”, “Friends, Lovers, Chocolate”, “The Right Attitude to Rain” and “The Careful Use of Compliments.”     All four by Alexander McCall Smith
Ah, Isabel Dalhousie.  All four of the books involving this 40ish woman from Edinburgh, Scotland, are certainly worth a trip to the bookstore, library, or even Amazon.com!  Most parts are wonderful, though some are a bit, well … pontificatory.Miss Dalhousie is the editor of The Review of Applied Ethics and the books are occasionally as long-winded as one assumes The Review might be.  Isobel finds herself in philosophical dilemmas involving strangers in crisis that she really could just leave be –  “It was her biggest problem, after all: how to draw limits to the extent of one’s sympathy.”
Of course, this is what one is meant to see about her.  Mystery series tend to have a protagonist with a thematic interest, whether it be catering, forensic pathology, running a bed and breakfast, home repair, an alphabetical sequence or something else.  Alexander McCall Smith has picked Ethics as his (or rather, Isabel’s).  To be cognizant of this is half the battle, and then one can really enjoy the books.
The story lines are engaging.  The slow parts build up an anticipation to get back to the real story.  Will she fall in love again?  Will her niece, Cat, do likewise?  What will Grace, the housekeeper, think?  Isabel has wonderful characters in her life;  the ex-boyfriend of her niece whom she, Isabel, secretly adores, the aforementioned Cat, who owns a gourmet shop In which a person could spend happy hours salivating wistfully over anchovies and Italian cheeses, and a housekeeper who serves as both ally and moderator, plus there’s even a fox in the garden!
Without giving too much away – whilst she is jumping head first into strangers’ needs and problems, she is helping herself as well.  She has loves to get over, loves to develop, and family relationships to cultivate.  She is perpetually torn between becoming a “spinster” or a ‘hipster.”  She could go either way at her age and consequently vascillates between the two.  One hopes that a happy medium will be reached and that she will get there with a modicum of blathering self-actualization.  We cheer when Isabel follows her heart rather than her mind, and is led to greater happiness.
The other characters she meets are just begging to be snap-judged, which Isabel cannot help but do.  She does nothing without thorough examination, except jump right in when someone needs help, as this quote exmplifies,  “She thought, I have no excuse to go and see this person.  I don’t know her, and she owes me nothing.  I am calling on a complete stranger.  But if that had not stopped her before, it did not stop her now…”Isabel has passions for philosophy, W.H. Auden (whom she calls affectionately WHA), and Scottish art, all of which are brought in to assist in her ethical quandaries.  Are things what they seem or is there more going on that she has simply overlooked because of her rash assumptions?
The second-guessing afterwards can be a little tiresome, but the mysteries develop as much from the contrast between her initial impression and the situational reality, as from any other source.  She realizes through her internal monologues that she is as infallible as the next person.  She sees herself in people and the help she gives may be as much for their greater good as for her own, causing her to comment, “I have learned something about myself …”
Isabel is perfectly aware of her failings and we like her all the more for them.  Often when contemplating the actions of others, she realizes that “she had almost done that.  And everything on those shelves [her ethical journals], all the elaborate structures of right and wrong, had been for a few moments forgotten.  Which is how most people acted when it came to temptation. They gave in.”
Along with a sense of humor and a very compassionate heart, Isobel also has a wonderfully direct approach to life with a pension for taking chances.  Happily for both Isabel and the reader,  she also has cash enough that the mundane trials of work, bills, cleaning and such like, do not need to be discussed.  (Really – don’t we get enough of that on our own time?  I’ll just tape record myself if I want to hear a bitter tirade about dirty dishes…)
Each of the four books in the series involves Miss Dalhousie in a different personal and philosophical dilemma, but with a common theme – to get involved or not?  Of course, she choose the former and not only does the reader feel she should, but, moreover, hopes she will.  Isabel explains simply,”If one feels a connection, one must get involved.”
McCall Smith seems to want us to come to his conclusion that some things deserve great intellectualization and other things simply do not.  The journey we take with Miss Dalhousie is really to help us figure out which is which.Isn’t that a good lesson to be learned by everyone?I’d say so.Editor’s Note:  Jenn invites readers to contact her with any thoughts on books at jpmann@sbcglobal.net