Dear Great Book Guru, With the beginning of the new school year, I feel the need to start a weekly reading regimen.  Do you have an engrossing, worthwhile, short book you would recommend? Starting in September

Dear Starting in September, I just finished a fascinating book and – yes - it’s only 238 pages: THE SAFEKEEP by Yael Van Der Wouden. Set in the Netherlands in 1961, the novel opens with Isabel – a quirky thirtyish year-old woman discovering a broken piece of pottery. Isabel lives in her dead mother’s country home and sees very few people.  Her brothers Hendrik and Louis live in the city and visit for a day or so twice a year. Her life is very circumscribed so when Louis insists his latest girlfriend Eva stay with Isabel for a month while he is on a business trip, Isabel is furious and totally unsettled.  Eva is the opposite of Isabel in every way. She sleeps late, dresses garishly, talks loudly and incessantly, but worst of all - she is not careful with the household treasures. The tension builds with Isabel counting the days until Eva will leave, but suddenly things begin to disappear, and the two women are confronted by mysterious happenings that draw them together. Soon we see that the house itself is a character.  Vestiges of World War II permeate the landscape and minds of both Eva and Isabel, leaving the reader to question if either woman can be trusted.   Highly recommended!

 

 Dear Great Book Guru, With Summer 2024 coming to an end, I am craving a “vacation” book - lots of characters, lovely setting, and quick-paced. Any thoughts? End of Summer Blues

Dear End of Summer Blues, I know the feeling – Sea Cliff summers are magical with the beautiful beach, its Cliffside Café, lots of outdoor dining in our great restaurants and shops, concerts at the Beach and the iconic Sunset Serenades! We are great fans of Emma Straub - owner of our favorite bookstores in Brooklyn, Books Are Magic, and award-winning author.  Her 2014 bestseller THE VACATIONERS is the perfect end of summer read.  Set in a spacious rental home in Majorca, the story is told from the viewpoints of its seven characters: Frannie, the matriarch and food critic, Jim, her husband who has just been fired because of a brief romance with his boss’s daughter; Bobby, their son and his much older personal trainer/girlfriend Carmen; Sylvia, their daughter who is about to begin college and wants  desperately to “reinvent” herself; and, finally, Charles and Lawrence, friends of Franny’s. All these characters arrive at the vacation home with secrets and sorrows.  Living in close proximity doesn’t make any of these problems go away and before the two weeks of vacation have ended, the reader is left wondering why anyone would want to leave home. Great fun and highly recommended!

Dear Great Book Guru, I loved your suggestion last week of THE GREAT GATSBY and was wondering if you can think of another book with a similar theme and setting ?   A Great Gatsby Fan

Dear Great Gatsby Fan, I have the perfect book for you: THE WINNER by Teddy Wayne.   Connor O’Toole is a twenty-five-year-old recent law school graduate who lands a dream summer job - teaching tennis at Cutters Neck - a very exclusive gated community near Cape Cod. The job comes with a lovely cottage.  During the year he lives with his sickly mother in a shabby, cramped apartment in Yonkers and he is burdened with mountains of credit card debt and school loans.  Covid fears permeate his daily existence. Life at Cutters Neck changes all this.  He quickly finds himself immersed in a romantic entanglement with his first student:  Catherine - a very wealthy, much older woman. When he meets her daughter, things become complicated, very complicated. Throughout Connor is confronted and confounded by the disparities of wealth and status all around him.  At times he is grateful to his benefactors but more often he is angry as he observes the privilege that wealth confers. This anger causes him to make some horrific choices and suddenly we begin to realize Connor has tricked us and everyone else he encounters.  The character he most resembles is not Jay Gatsby – a mysterious yet sympathetic figure - but the amoral, dangerously duplicitous Tom Ripley in THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY.  Highly Recommended!

 

 Dear Great Book Guru, I have been invited to a “Great Gatsby Gala.” It has been many years since I read THE GREAT GATSBY. Any suggestions as to how to prepare? P.S. I heard there will be a Gatsby trivia contest and I am eager to shine!  Gatsby Gala Guest

Dear Gatsby Gala Guest, What fun awaits you! First, of course, reread THE GREAT GATSBY. You will be astonished how much you missed your first time. Many believe it to be the greatest of the Great American Novels with its prescient commentary on race, class, and gender. When first published, it was viewed as a crime noir with its violent deaths, femme fatales, and mobster connections. Later it was appreciated for its commentary on the quixotic American dream of redemption.  Then for many years, it was seen as a cautionary tale of the danger of passions pursued. Today many readers admire it for its lyrical prose and profound metaphors. Of course, the setting  with its North Shore venues  plays a huge part in our enjoyment of the novel. Gatsby lives in the nouveau rich Great Neck (West Egg) as opposed to the more genteel, old wealth of Manhasset (East Egg), and the horrific climax takes place in- is it Douglaston, Queens?   This is a book to be read over and over with new insights to be found each time. As Fitzgerald wrote, “so we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly into the past.” Highly recommended!

 Dear Great Book Guru, Summer 2024  is moving along so rapidly and I falling far behind in my quest to read a good book each week. Please help me – I need a quick moving, interest catching novel – doesn’t have to be new … Summer Reader

Dear Summer Reader,  Lots of us see summer as the best time of year to catch up on books we might have missed, and for me it was Tom Perrotta’s THE LEFTOVERS. Made into a long running TV series, the novel has been on my must-read list for years so last week I tackled it and am happy I did.  I’m sure you will enjoy it too.  The premise of both the book and TV series is that three years in the past on October 14, over a million people of all ages disappeared from all parts of the world- a Rapture of sorts. The novel focuses on the aftermath of this climatic moment and its effects on families in one village- perhaps a bit reminiscent of Sea Cliff!  Kevin Garvey the new mayor and  his two children Tom and Jill are dealing with a loss-wife Laurie has left them to join a group seeking to make amends for the sins of those left behind- the Guilty Remanent.  Another villager Nora Durst   has lost both husband and children to the Rapture and she finds herself unable to go forth especially when secrets are revealed about the past. Holy Wayne is a local figure who has founded a   religion to make sense  of  who and what remains.  As each of the characters struggles to find meaning in this occurrence, we see glimmers of our own quests to explain the unexplainable.  A thought-provoking book and highly recommended!