Tuesday Intro: Cold Spring Harbor

All the sorrows of Evan Shepard's loutish adolescence were redeemed at seventeen, in 1935, when he fell in love with automobiles. His persistent bullying of weaker boys, his thick-witted ways of offending girls, his inept and embarrassing ventures into petty crime - none of those things mattered any more, except as bad memories.  He had found a high romance in driving fast and far, over most of Long Island, and he soon attained intimacy with the mechanical parts of any car he could get his hands on.  For whole days at a time, meticulously taking a car apart or putting it together in the dust of his parents' driveway, Evan would be lost to the world.

Cold Spring Harbor is my third Richard Yates novel this year, and fourth  overall. I've also read many of his short stories and a wonderful biography. It's time to start working on a Yates wrap-up post!

Tuesday Intros is hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea.

A Monday Salon?

It's a holiday weekend and today feels like Sunday, so here goes...

Last week passed in a blur of shopping and packing, and culminated with the challenge of driving a very heavily-laden SUV into Manhattan. Saturday and Sunday proved to be quite an adventure, but Daughter #1 is moved in and settled for the summer. She begins her internship tomorrow, and we begin another wild week preparing for Twin B's senior ball and Twin A's graduation. (They go to different schools.)

There wasn't much time for reading, but I hope to finish Cold Spring Harbor by Richard Yates today or tomorrow. After that,  I'll take a break from Yates and try something a little lighter and funnier. Sandy's review makes This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper sounds like a perfect choice... and I just picked up a copy for $3.99.

Memorial Day marks the unofficial beginning of summer here in the US. I'm more than ready to welcome the season!

"A Morning Walk" by Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" was the subject of my first Short Story Monday post two years ago. I give it partial credit for renewing my interest in short stories and have been meaning to return to Chopin ever since. Over the weekend, I had a chance to read "A Morning Walk". It was featured as a Library of America's Short Story of the Week last month and originally appeared as "An Easter Day Conversion" in the Criterion (St. Louis) in April, 1897.

The story opens:

Archibald had been up many hours. He had breakfasted, and now he was taking a morning stroll along the village street, which was little other than a high ledge cut into the mountain-side. 

It goes on to give a detailed description of Archibald's physical qualities, as well as the natural surroundings. While walking, he meets a young girl with a bunch of lilies and carries them for her. They eventually arrive at church, and we learn it is Easter morning. To everyone's amazement, Archibald follows the girl into the church, takes a seat, and begins to listen to the sermon.

The words "I am the Resurrection and the Life" are spoken - words Archibald has heard before. The story then ends abruptly with:

It crept into the consciousness of Archibald, sitting there. As he gathered it into his soul a vision of life came with it; the poet’s vision, of the life that is within and the life that is without, pulsing in unison, breathing the harmony of an undivided existence. 

He listened to no further words of the minister. He entered into himself and he preached unto himself a sermon in his own heart, as he gazed from the window through which the song came and where the leafy shadows quivered.

Strange. Apparently, Archibald has had a conversion of sorts. I didn't really like the story and don't know what else to say about it. It can be read here if you are interested.

Short Story Monday is hosted by John Mutford at The Book Mine Set.

The Sunday Salon: Another Week of Richard Yates

It's been another week of reading Richard Yates here at Lakeside Musing.  I finished A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates by Blake Bailey last Sunday. It is, without doubt, the best literary biography I have ever read and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Thank you again, Rachel, for bringing this book to my attention. My review should be ready soon.

Monday found me searching Barnes & Noble for more Yates novels. I bought two and started Disturbing the Peace that evening. The first paragraphs immediately drew me in and established the Yatesian tone I have come to expect. You can read them for yourself in my Tuesday Intro post.

The rest of the week was pretty much a blur of activities, but I managed to squeeze in a little reading time each evening.  I will finish Disturbing the Peace today and plan to forge ahead with another Yates novel, Cold Spring Harbor.

It may be quieter than usual around here this week, but not because of BEA or Book Blogger Convention. Instead, I'll be helping Daughter #1 prepare for her summer internships in New York City. We move her in next weekend, just as all the book bloggers leave town.

Finally, congratulations to Frances of Nonsuch Book. She is the winner of Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym.

What are you reading this week?

Weekend Cooking at Lakeside Kitchen

Today's Weekend Cooking post can be found at Lakeside Kitchen.

Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym

Frustration following the Great Blogger Debacle has subsided, but  I'm not up to recreating the vanished review of Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym. Still, it should not go unmentioned.

Jane and Prudence are unlikely friends. Jane is ten years older, unfashionable, incompetent in her role as vicar's wife, and totally inept at homemaking. Prudence, a single, very fashionable, working woman living in the city, is famous for her string of unsuitable boyfriends. When Jane's husband accepts a position in a rural parish, she sets out to find the perfect mate for her friend. As you may guess, Jane's matchmaking skills are not quite up to par either.

The novel, centered around domestic/parish life, steeped in English culture and values of the time, and featuring plenty of tea drinking, was exactly what I have come to expect from Barbara Pym. This cozy, relaxing read provided the perfect beginning for my recent Florida vacation. I only wished I'd packed Some Tame Gazelle, too.

Giveaway reminder: 
Pym's novels can be difficult to find here in the United States. I'm giving away my gently read copy of Jane and Prudence on Sunday. If you're interested, leave me a comment here.

Tuesday Intro: Disturbing the Peace

I started another Richard Yates novel last night. The first couple paragraphs of Disturbing the Peace immediately drew me in and established the 'Yatesian tone' I have come to expect. Tuesday Intros, a new event at Bibliophile by the Sea, offers the perfect opportunity to share.


"Everything began to go wrong for Janice Wilder in the late summer of 1960. And the worst part, she always said afterwards, the awful part, was that it seemed to happen without warning.


She was thirty-four and the mother of a ten-year-old son. The fading of her youth didn't bother her--it hadn't been a very carefree or adventurous youth anyway--and if her marriage was more an arrangement than romance, that was all right too. Nobody's life was perfect. She enjoyed the orderly rotation of her days; she enjoyed books, of which she owned a great many; and she enjoyed her high, bright apartment with its view of midtown Manhattan towers. It was neither a rich nor an elegant apartment, but it was comfortable--and 'comfortable' was one of Janice Wilder's favorite words. She was fond of the word 'civilized', too, and of 'reasonable' and 'adjustment' and 'relationship'. Hardly, anything upset or frightened her: the only things that did--sometimes to the point of making her blood run cold--were the things she didn't understand."