Dear Great Book Guru, Last night my friends and I were at a cast party at our favorite restaurant, La Famiglia in Glen Cove, when someone mentioned a book she had just read that was set mostly in Bayville and had lots of references to North Shore towns and landmarks. I’ m very interested – are you familiar with it?  Fan of the North Shore

Dear Fan of the North Shore, JOHNNY CARELESS by Kevin Wade is a fascinating read.  Jeep Mullane grew up in the small town of Bayville and has returned as head of police after a stellar career in the New York City Police Department. His father had been a local policeman also, so Jeep knew the difficulties of living and working in the same community especially one where class and money disparities are widespread.  His best friend from childhood, Johnny Chambliss, was from a wealthy family and he appeared to live a charmed life with a charismatic personality, beautiful wife, and unlimited resources.  When his body washes ashore on the opening pages, Jeep is determined to solve the mystery of his life and death.  As he learns more and more about the people and places that featured in Johnny’s life, Jeep is troubled by the “carelessness” of his friend.  Reminiscent at times of The Great Gatsby, this novel presents us with a cast of characters that seem intent on living lives not of quiet desperation, but of wanton disregard for those not of their class. While there are many humorous moments, the underlying story is disturbing, but very compelling.  Highly recommended!

 Dear Great Book Guru, My friends and I had such fun at the Great Gatsby Trivia contest that was the Library’s part of Celebrate Sea Cliff Day. The weather was beautiful, and we were set up outside the Library on Village Green. While we were waiting to begin, one of the library patrons passing by mentioned a mystery based on the Great Gatsby.  I’m intrigued!   Gatsby Obsessive

Dear Gatsby Obsessive, THE GATSBY GAMBIT by Claire Anderson-Wheeler is a wonderful way to experience THE GREAT GATSBY in a totally different way. First, it is a mystery in the manner of Agatha Christie, and the characters from the original novel appear with all their same virtues and vices. The setting too is the same - 1920’s Gold Coast Long Island. The storyline however changes dramatically as we are immediately introduced to a new character – Gatsby’s sister Greta. Six years younger, she is her brother’s ward and is thrilled to be joining him now after graduation.  On the LIRR train ride to Great Neck, she thinks excitedly about all that awaits her, but when she arrives at her brother’s opulent mansion, she is dismayed to find Daisy and Tom living there with Gatsby. Shortly after her arrival, Tom is found dead on Gatsby’s yacht, and it becomes her mission to prove her brother’s innocence. Throughout, we experience the lush, decadent lifestyle of the Gatsby characters from the perspective of this clever young girl.  The fun arises from meeting characters we are very familiar with but in a different plot line with a very different outcome. Having read THE GREAT GATSBY several times as many of you have, it was a treat to celebrate the novel’s 100^th anniversary with this imaginative take on its themes of wealth, power, and greed. Highly recommended!

 Dear Great Book Guru, I am looking forward to Celebrate Sea Cliff Day this coming Saturday.  I’ m particularly excited about Great Gatsby Trivia on the Village Green. But I really need a short but compelling read to recommend to my book club.  Any suggestions?  Sea Cliff Day Celebrant

Dear Sea Cliff Day Celebrant, I just finished a fascinating novel - AUDITION by Katie Kitamura. The story opens with a middle-aged actress standing outside a New York City restaurant deciding if she should go in to meet Xavier, a young student. She almost turns away, but no… she joins him and a strange but beautiful story unfolds.  Is he her son (impossible she explains) and is that Toma her husband who she sees across the room and why is he here?  There is a definite sense of mystery and foreboding. With the next chapter a whole new story begins.  In this version she and Toma are home with Xavier who is now their son. While we quickly realize she is an unreliable narrator, we are now forced to deal with two totally different narratives.  Is she acting in two distinct plays and who is her audience? The roles that parents and children play in different stages are described in exquisite detail, but when Hana, a fourth character, joins the family, roles shift once again. Throughout, we are confronted with the reality that “all the world’s a stage, and we are merely players.” A novel that will perplex and delight – highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, Last week my family and I gathered for our annual Spring celebration here in Sea Cliff, and everyone was talking about a new book by a favorite Irish author. It’s about the sea and sounded a bit like The Heart of Darkness. Have you read it? Smitten by the Sea

 Dear Smitten by the Sea, Colum McCann’s TWIST, his newest book, is indeed about the sea but so much more. As many of McCann’s books do, this latest is a story of connections: the enormous undersea cables that connect us to the cyberworld and each other. The book’s narrator is Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist whose latest assignment is to write about the hidden world of undersea cables that carry all the world’s data and what happens when these cables break.  He waits for notice of a break and, when it happens, finds himself aboard a ship bound for West Africa and commandeered by John Conway, an inscrutable genius with a mysterious history.  Many of the crew also have back stories that connect with the underground sea world – a world more unfathomable than outer space.  Throughout, Fennell refers back to Zanele, the beautiful partner of Conway, and the twists that link her to the mission.  The realization that so much of human connection relies on fragile cables miles below the earth at the bottom of the sea is both startling and horrifying.  A beautifully written book with echoes of The Great Gatsby, Moby Dick, The Odyssey and - yes of course - The Heart of Darkness… highly recommended!

 

 Dear Great Book Guru, One of my favorites places in the world is Venice and I have visited it many, many times over the years. Alas, this year I’m not able to make the journey.  Do you have books that might help me experience Venice while in Sea Cliff?                                        Lover of All Thing Venetian

Dear Lover of All Things Venetian, I too am a huge fan of Venice and often tell my friends that Sea Cliff and Venice are so very much alike. I do admit they usually look puzzled at this comparison!  But I have a perfect solution to your malaise – Donna Leon’s newest literary mystery: A REFINER’S FIRE. This is the thirty-third book in her Commissario Brunetti series. Brunetti is a seasoned lawyer, police commissioner, and Roman scholar. His wife, a Henry James expert, teaches at the university.   This book opens in early spring 2024 and Venice is dealing with the problem of “baby gangs” - young boys all under fourteen - thus too young to be prosecuted.  They stage wild meetups just to appear on social media. When these rival gangs are picked up by the police, parents are called to retrieve them. One of the boys is left and a kindly policewoman walks him home.  This good deed opens up an amazing tale of deceit, corruption and violence going back to 2002 with its aftermath coloring the lives of high-powered government officials and low level mobsters. Throughout this, we see the unique beauty of Venice’s plazas, churches, canals, and byzantine streets.  As always, the crime is secondary to the story - and the story is always Venice - highly recommended! 

 

 Dear Great Book Guru, I am so excited…. the Barbara Pym Society of Sea Cliff will be attending the North American Pym Society’s annual conference in Cambridge Massachusetts next week.  We are putting on a dramatized reading of one of Pym’s novels.  I hope to meet up with Pym fans from around the world. Passionate Pym Player

Dear Passionate Pym Player, What fun awaits you and your friends!  Barbara Pym’s A FEW GREEN LEAVES is the last of the novels written by Pym - completed a few months before her death in 1980.  Set in the 1970’s in  a small village outside of London, the story centers on the changes that society has experienced since Pym’s first novel in 1935, SOME TAME GAZELLE.  The Church’s role has been replaced by the medical offices where prescriptions for the villagers have taken the place of blessings.  Emma Howick has recently moved from London and finds herself studying the villagers through her practiced anthropologist’s eye. The characters include a rather ineffectual widowed clergyman Tom, his sister Daphne who yearns to leave for life on  a Greek island, the local doctor who hands out those prescriptions to the ill and not so ill, a former lover of Emma’s Graham Pettifer who settles in to finish a novel, a former clergyman turned food critic, and numerous other eccentrics  who play  varying roles in the life of the village.  Throughout the often-hilarious encounters, there is a sense of melancholy as one sees the inevitable changes that time has brought to this once vibrant village.  Dan DiPietro’s adaptation, to be performed at the conference, captures this and the cast he has assembled bring it to life. Highly recommended!

 Dear Great Book Guru, We were in Brooklyn recently and visited a great new book store Liz’s Book Bar, in Carroll Gardens.  Some of the customers were talking about a new book written by the owner of the store.  They were very enthusiastic, but I didn’t hear the title of the book.  Any idea? Brooklyn Bookstore Fan

Dear Brooklyn Bookstore Fan, I have been to Liz’s Book Bar too ( Liz is the owner’s grandmother) and read  Maura Cheeks’s debut novel ACTS OF FORGIVENESS.  Set in the near future, the nation is just about to pass the Forgiveness Act - a federal reparations bill by which Black families would be able to claim up to $175,000 if they could prove their ancestors were enslaved. Willie Revel is sure she can gather the necessary documentation but quickly finds there are many obstacles in her way.  The money would be a terrific boon to her and her young daughter as she struggles to save the family construction business from bankruptcy.  Her parents and siblings are not as eager as she is to delve into the past.  Her mother is adopted and uneasy about what might be discovered about her past. Her father is wary of government involvement and is fearful his past business deals could complicate the process. Meanwhile Willie’s young daughter – a scholarship student at an elite private school - dreads the attention her mother’s quest might bring.  The more Willie researches the past, the more she realizes how complicated both history and family can be.  A compelling read and highly recommended!