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 Asia and Australia

A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute (1950)

A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute was published nearly 70 years ago, and although it clearly reflects the prejudices prevalent at the time (treatment of women and Australian aborigines), it is also a very fascinating novel about the resilience of humans in the face of adversary.

The novel follows Jean Paget, a young English woman, during and after World War II, and is narrated by her solicitor, a man old enough to be her father.  At the outbreak of World War II, Jean was working for a British company in Malaya.  When the Japanese invaded, women and children were taken prisoner.  The Japanese commander was reluctant to be responsible for the women and children, and as a result, they were forced to walk all around the country for duration of the War, always being told they were headed for a camp.  Finally, they were able to settle in a Malaya village, where they worked with the towns people until the end of the war.  By the end of the War, about half the women and children had died.  [Note:  this was based a historical event that actually took place in Sumatra.]

Before joining the Malaya village, however, during their travels, they encountered some Australian prisoners of war.  One of the prisoners was Joe Harman.  He and Jean struck up a friendship.  When he steals 5 chickens from the commander to give to the women, he his caught and crucified.  The women march on, believing that Joe is dead.

After the War, Jean returns to England, where she gets a job as a secretary at a leather goods factory.  She soon learns that she has come into a considerable (for the time) inheritance from an uncle she barely remembered.  She has enough money that she no longer needs to work.  She decides that she wants to use some of her money to build a well for the women in the Malaya village where she had been during the War.  She returns to the Malaya village, where she learns that Joe Harman survived.

Before returning to England, she decides to go to Australia to try to find Joe to thank him for his help during their trek around Malaya.  Six years have passed since they last saw each other.  She thought he was dead, and he thought she was married.  When he learns that she was single, he decided to go to England to find her ~ while she in in Australia looking for him.  Ultimately, they get together and truly fall in love.

While she is in Australia, she visits Alice Springs, which at the time was a bustling town in the Australian outback.  Joe runs a ranch in the middle of the outback, and the nearest town, Willstown, can hardly be considered town.  There is little there to attract families.  Jean doesn’t want Joe to change his life’s work, but at the same time doesn’t want to live in Willstown.  As she had proven during her trek around Malaya, Jean is a very resourceful and ambitious woman.  She decides to use her money to build up the town.  She opens a leather shoe factory and an ice-cream parlor.  She hires young women to work in these establishments.  These endeavors thrive, and Jean uses her inheritance to continue to invest in Willstown to make it a “town like Alice.”

As noted, this book was written 70 years ago.  As a result, the references and attitudes towards the Aborigines in the book were reflective of the time.  I found this to be very uncomfortable.  Still, this book is a wonderful story of facing and surviving hardships

I first read this book about 30 years ago.  I re-read for one of my book group discussions.  I’m glad I read again.

Read: October 12, 2019 (first read in October 1984)

4 Stars