A yellow face.
with pachysandra in the background
red and salmon colored
tulips and daffodils in the backyard
Jennifer Donnelly’s A Northern Light, set on Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks in 1906, is a coming of age story of would be writer, Mattie Gokey, who unravels a murder mystery (the real-life case involving Grace Brown and Chester Gillette, which was also the murder that on which Dreiser based his masterful “An American Tragedy”) and learns that the most important promise is the one you make to yourself. Mattie is an engaging narrator. A lover of words and romantic at heart, she always tries to do the right thing by her family and friends, even if that means she suffers. A new teacher in town encourages Mattie to apply to Barnard College and when she is accepted on full-scholarship, Mattie must decide whether to honor the promise she made to her mother or to follow her heart’s desire.
I grew up in the Adirondacks and am touched at how well this author has established sense of place and at how well she understands the people who live there. While this book is classified as young adult, I believe it will appeal to other adults, as it did to me.
Now here’s an interesting tale of how one woman turned her short fiction collection into a novel–Fear of Flight:
This wasn’t the first time someone had tried to steer me away from short fiction. “Write a novel,” my friends of the longer form told me. “You can’t build a career on short fiction.” Alice Munro, I insisted. Mavis Gallant. Raymond Carver. Grace Paley. Vocational short story writers all. Besides, I had had my share of publications, and my stories were coalescing as a book—not just a short story collection but a linked short story collection, with shared characters, themes, and issues. Linked story collections, as we know, are all the rage. I ignored the advice and sent my manuscript to an agent recommended by one of my short story editors. Thus it was that I ended up in a Japanese restaurant, hearing the raw truth over (appropriately) sashimi.
The agent in question, Nat Sobel, is nothing if not gracious. He ordered a bottle of sake and filled my glass several times before delivering the news: My linked collection of stories was trans-genred. It had a novel inside, a novel just longing to get out. I stared glumly into my hijiki. Although every fiber of my being wanted to protest—Start over? You’ve got to be kidding!—at that moment, I suspected Sobel was right. Perhaps it was the timing. Perhaps it was his conviction. Perhaps it was the sake. I went home with a headache (definitely the sake) and spent the weekend moping.
read on here…
Wow, I don’t quite know what to think of this story: Human Hibernation To Treat Critically Ill People? I’m both intrigued and freaked out at the thought of “suspended animation.” I read about something like this for that girl who was treated and cured of rabies–that they put her into a coma to keep the infection at bay while they treated her with drugs. And it worked.
I don’t know. Suspended animation. It just brings up all sorts of sci fi images–and not good ones.
Today is the day (supposedly, as scholars still argue that Shakespeare wasn’t Shakepeare at all) that William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon (it is also my friend Peter’s birthday–happy birthday to him, too!). I am a lover of Shakespeare–a Shakepearephile. In school, I took something like half a dozen separate courses on Shakespeare and I wasn’t even a Shakespearean scholar. Clearly, there is still plenty more to learn and love.
A few years ago I took a tour of the rebuilt Globe Theater in London. It was amazing. I would like to see a performance there some day. If you have not seen it and have the opportunity, then I would urge you to visit.
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=read08-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0974391921&fc1=000000&=1&lc1=0000ff&bc1=000000<1=_blank&IS2=1&f=ifr&bg1=ffffff&f=ifrAnd if you are looking for something to buy today, in honor of Shakespeare’s birthday, I can heartily recommend Michelle Cameron’s In the Shadow of the Globe–a narrative poem taking the reader into life of William Shakespeare. Michelle Cameron is a gifted writer and you will not be disappointed by what she has accomplished in this book. In fact, you will be amazed. I’ve also heard the Will in the World is quite good. I’ve not read it yet myself, but the friend of mine who did praised it.
And now, for your reading pleasure, I offer you the bard’s words:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
In case you didn’t know, today is not only Earth Day but also the 35th anniversary of Earth Day. One thing you can do is take the Ecological Footprint Quiz–you may find yourself surprised at the results. I know I did.
More daffodils. 
myfanwy collins 