IN THE ORCHARD by Eliza Minot
A long prose poem to motherhood describes this sweet and tender novel. Over the course of one day, a mother of four—from infant to preteen—ruminates on the minutia of parenting and expands it to the larger transcendence of the meanings we take from life. What worries our narrator? Money—the lack of it, the family’s debt, with no remedy in sight. Minot effortlessly moves through the memory of the narrator’s childhood and her mother’s death but returns to the present as if all of the past is distilled into this ordinary day. Loved it!
Favorite line(s): Like the horse, Maisie is always looking out, at woods, at the edge of something like a body of water, out a window, down a hill, like a forest, looking out at the edge of herself, scanning its border and periphery, feeling part prey and part on-the-lookout, but also part commander in charge, the protector of all protectors, but also vulnerable and small. Caring for a baby made one languish and flourish at the same time. Time was swallowed, and simultaneously she felt full and empty. Everything was so delicate, while everything was also so strong. Why was that? Was it because that is what being alive, overall, is like, really? A series of languishments and flourishes, of withering and blooming, that work off of each other? And wasn’t caring for a baby pretty much a lesson for caring for life in general? Life never cried out for help and attention; life doesn’t car whether it is lived or not. But a baby will remind you that your life needs attention and affection: your life needs effort; your life needs care.
TOM LONG by Ann Patchett
Lara, once an almost famous actress with her start as Emily in Our Town, falls in love with her co-star, Peter Duke. When that fizzles out, Lara leaves her acting career behind and marries the director of the summer theatre where she performed. Years later, during the pandemic, Lara’s three grown daughters return home to the family’s cherry farm in northern Michigan. While hunkered down picking cherries, the daughters grill their mother on her romantic past with Peter Duke and why she left acting. A gorgeous meditation on the mother-daughter relationship and how the past doesn’t define a whole life.
Favorite line(s): There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you’d never be able to let go? Now you’re not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else. Memories are then replaced by different joys and larger sorrows, and unbelievably, those things get knocked aside as well, until one morning you’re picking cherries with your three grown daughters and your husband goes by on the Gator and you are positive that this is all you’ve ever wanted in the world.
ROMANTIC COMEDY by Curtis Sittenfeld (AUDIO)
Sally writes comedy sketches for “The Night Owls,” a takeoff on Saturday Night Live. The host and musical guest is heartthrob pop singer Noah Brewster. Sally helps Noah with a sketch he wants included in Saturday’s lineup. There are sparks between them as they exchange witty repartees (Sittenfeld is a genius at writing dialogue), but Sally thinks it’s all a ruse. No one that good-looking, that famous, would ever consider a romantic relationship with her. Sally has written another sketch about how dating out of one’s league doesn’t apply to women. She makes fun of her office partner, Danny, a schlubby senior writer on the show who is engaged to a beautiful young actress. You see where this is going. Sally, the embittered, average-looking female, can’t believe someone like Noah would actually like her more than a friend. I won’t spoil the ending.
YELLOWFACE by R.F. Kuang (AUDIO)
June Hayward is a fledgling novelist without new work when her frenemy, Athena Liu, chokes on a pancake and dies. Before calling the police, June steals the pages of Athena’s manuscript. She rewrites the novel, filling in missing pieces from research, and publishes the work as her own. June is white. Athena, Asian. The story reads like a thriller as we hold our breath, waiting for the truth to come out. But as soon as one aspect of the puzzle is revealed, the story shifts to another, letting the character controlling the narrative to determine who tells the story of one’s work, of one’s culture. The themes are as much about appropriation, exploitation, and racism as they are about the broader question of who gets to tell the story.