Books Set in North America; United States; New England; Massachusetts and Vermont

The Inn at Lake Devine, by Elinor Lipman (1998) is a delightful little romantic comic novel.

We first meet Natalie Marx, the heroine of The Inn as Lake Devine, as a young girl, who lives in a tight-knit Jewish family in Newton, Massachusetts.  The year is the early 1960s.  While exploring a resort for a summer vacation, her mother writes a letter of inquiry to the Inn at Lake Devine, which is situated on a beautiful lake in scenic Vermont. Ingrid Berry, the owner and manager of the Inn, writes back stating that the clientele at the Inn is for gentiles.  This seems to be Natalie’s first experience with anti-Semitism.  It also convinces her that she absolutely must find out what is so great about this particular Inn.

Soon after this event, the Civil Rights Act became the law.  Young Natalie began a campaign to flood the Berry’s letters reminding them that they could no longer restrict their clientele to only gentiles.

Later, while at summer camp, Natalie meets Robin Fife, whose family just happens to vacation at the Inn at Lake Devine each summer.  Natalie befriends Robin, even though she finds Robin a bit dull.  She devises a scheme to get herself invited to go to the Inn with Fife family for a week’s vacation.

Flash-forward 10 years.  Natalie is now a professional chef who is between jobs.  Natalie and Robin have more-or-less lost track of each other when Natalie learns that Robin is working in Boston at the Pappagallo store on Newbury Street in Boston.  (How well I remember this store!)  Natalie learns that Robin is engaged to marry Nelson Berry, son of the infamous Inn at Lake Devine.  Robin insists that Natalie attend her upcoming nuptials, which will be held at … (wait for it) the Inn!

Natalie returns to the Inn for the wedding and, on the way to the event, Robin is killed in a tragic car accident.  With family gathered for the wedding, the family decides to hold the funeral there instead.  Natalie stays for the week, cooking for the grieving families where she befriends Kris Berry, the groom’s younger brother.

She hopes that her budding friendship with Kris will develop into something more.  Her parents aren’t thrilled with her involvement with Kris because not only is he not Jewish, but at least 1 member of his family is anti-Semitic.  They fail to give Natalie messages and letters from Kris.

Ultimately, Kris and Natalie get together and go off to a resort in the Catskills with Nelson and his college friend Linette.  Linette’s family runs a kosher resort in the Catskills and she is engaged to a rabbinical student.  She and Nelson, however, renew their friendship as Natalie and Kris’s relationship blooms.

I liked this book, however, the ending was a little too trite.  Nelson quickly became involved with Linette so soon after Robin’s death.  This seemed very callous.

There is a brief, but interesting, #MeToo incident between Natalie and her influential boss.  He tacitly promises to provide her with job opportunities in exchange for sexual favors.  Natalie declines his “offer”, but this passage was written 20 years before such actions were even remotely being taken seriously by the public at large.

Read: February 26, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe and North America: France, England and the United States

Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X, by Deborah Davis (2003)

Strapless is about a painting and the story behind the painting.  The portrait of Madame X is probably recognizable by almost anyone with any interest in the arts.  It is the portrait of a woman from the late 1800s, wearing a black, low-cut dress with thin and jeweled straps.  The woman is looking towards her left and her face is in profile.  When this painting hit the Paris Salon in 1884 it caused quite a scandal for both the artist, John Singer Sargent, and the subject, Virginia Amélie Gautreau.

Both Sargent and Gautreau were American ex-patriots living in Paris at the time.  Virginie Gautreau, known by her friends as Amélie, came from a wealthly Louisiana family that had made its fortune in the sugar cane industry.  After the American Civil War, she and her mother moved to Paris, where the family had ties.  There she married a wealthy and much older man and made it her business to become a socialite.

John Singer Sargent was an American due to his American parents, but was born and lived much of his life in Europe.  He was able to study with the great artists of his time and decided to focus his career on portraits.  When he began showing his work at the famous Paris Salon, he began to make a name for himself.

He met the lovely Amélie and wanted to paint her portrait for his entry into the 1884 Salon.  She was flighty and didn’t like to pose for long periods of time, however, he eventually convinced her to pose in a revealing black dress.  As originally painted, one of the straps was depicted to drop off her shoulder.  It was this feature that created the scandal.  For months afterwards, the newspapers articles and gossipers talked about the painting.  The scandal caused Sargent to flee France and rebuild his painting career.  

Amélie, who for years had worked hard on her image to remain in the public spotlight, suddenly was ostracized.  Although Amélie and her mother approved of the painting before its public showing, afterwards, they, too, were scandalized.  The painting had ruined Amélie’s image, both to herself and in the public’s eye.

Intertwined with Amélie’s story, was the story of Sargent’s painting career.  He worked hard to restore his position in the art world.  He found patrons in England, where his painted his famous Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose ~ a picture of young girls in a summer garden with Chinese lanterns.  I have seen this painting and it is truly amazing!  The light from the lanterns seems to truly come from within the painting.

He later began traveling between the United States and Europe.  He encounter the formidable Isabella Stewart Gardner and painted her portrait.  This portrait scandalized Gardner’s husband, but apparently no one else.

Sargent retained the portrait of Amélie.  Because he had not painted it on commission, the Gautreau’s were under no obligation to purchase it.  He held on to the painting for over 30 years, before finally selling it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  Under the terms of the sale, the painting was to be known as Madame X, hence, Amélie’s name became almost lost to history.

I loved this book.  John Singer Sargent is a favorite artist of mine and when his work was on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston several years ago, I made a special trip to view the work.

Read:  February 22, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States: Arizona

The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver (1988)

This is a very quiet novel about everyday life of love and friendship.  The novel is mostly narrated by Marietta Greer, a young woman who reinvented herself and changee her name to Taylor when she left her home in Kentucky and headed for adventure.  When she made a stop in Oklahoma, near a Native American reservation, a Cherokee woman dropped a toddler into her beat-up VW Beatle and asked Taylor to take the baby.  Taylor did so without question.

Taylor knew nothing about the toddler and the child was in a catatonic state.  Because the baby clung to Taylor, Taylor began calling her Turtle.

Taylor drove on through the American West until she landed in Tucson, Arizona when her car broke down.  In Tucson, she became friends with Mattie, the woman who ran the auto repair shop and fixed up Taylor’s car.  After some time, Taylor began to realize that Mattie had a secret ~ that she was assisting undocumented immigrants find safe havens out of the State.

In the meantime, Taylor befriended Lou Ann, another young woman with a baby and an abandoned husband.  The two women shared a house and took turns taking care of each other’s respective children.

When the State became aware that Taylor was not the legal guardian of Turtle, Taylor must make a critical decision.

This is a short book, but it didn’t hold my interest.  

Read:  February 12, 2020

3 Stars