BOOK REVIEW: Olive Kitteridge

Elizabeth Strout won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel OLIVE KITTERIDGE. Many times it has seemed a mystery to me how a book gets selected for a Pulitzer. OLIVE KITTERIDGE may have given me a clue.

In thirteen short stories, author Elizabeth Strout tells us of the people living in a small coastal town. We learn how their lives are tangled together and how lives are influenced by the people of the past, as well as the present. The stories are not in chronological order and the protagonist may change but this gives us a chance to see the action from different perspectives.

Olive Kitteridge, a retired high school teacher, plays a part in each story, sometimes as the main character, sometimes in a very small supporting role. The first story, “Pharmacy” is told through Henry, Olive’s pharmacist husband. Henry comes across as somebody who likes his fellow man and lives a bit vicariously through the newly wed young woman who works for him. Olive comes across cold and uncaring. This set her character for me and the author had to work to make me see anything likeable about her.

As we meet each member of the small town and see the infidelities, the obsession with suicide, the bits of sadness mixed with an occasional piece of happiness, we see intimate glimpses of humanity. We can feel the close, almost suffocating, atmosphere of living in a small town.  

The stories are full of people suffering from deep pain, pains that are very relatable to the reader. Elizabeth Strout has the touch to save it from being overwhelming oppressive.

My biggest problem with the book was the number of named characters, ninety, and some names were shared by several characters. I had trouble keeping them straight. Several of the stories will stay with me to ponder over and worry about what happened next. The people were real, dealing with very real, human situations. Olive and Henry will be with me for a long time. Maybe this is what makes a book worthy of winning the Pulitzer Prize.

THEATER: Mary Poppins

Practically perfect MARY POPPINS is visiting Millbrook Playhouse at present. Having only ever seen the movie version, I could not wait to see how the special effects would translate to a live stage. Thanks to director/ choreographer Courtney Laine Self, the staging was the hit of the show. The “living props” were so much fun. I liked that lamps, windows, shelves, etc. were as interested in what was happening on stage as the audience was.

The dance numbers were lively and very much in rhythm with the show (pun intended). I would dare anyone to sit quietly while the chimney sweeps stepped in time. As energetic as “Step in Time” was, the pigeons in “Feed the Birds” were gentle and graceful.

Samantha Carroll was perfectly cast as Mary Poppins. Her voice is beautiful with an amazing range. Ms. Carroll also captured the perfectly  prim, overly confidant Mary Poppins, well, perfectly. We get a chance to hear her voice later this season in Guys and Dolls.

Bert was played by Spencer Streno with  great energy. Spencer also has a good voice and he had the ability to lead the dancers through the demanding dance numbers.

The sometimes overlooked role of Mrs. Banks was played by the lovely Catherine Deluce. There was no overlooking Ms. Deluce. Not only does she have a thrilling voice, she handled the change from sweet little wife and mother to the strong “deal with me” fighter when her husband needed her.

The return of Tom Lavallee to Millbrook pleased me very much. Tom played Mr. Banks, the man who learns to become a warm and loving father and husband. Tom Lavallee is a name that you might want to remember. Not only does he have a very good voice, every word and note is clear and distinct, he also has a range of acting skills. He will be playing one my favorite theatrical roles in the upcoming Guys and Dolls.

As the Banks children, Kendall Eichenlaub  and Elizabeth Shaffer were a delight. They were very professional, had pleasant voices, and they seemed to be having a very good time on stage.  That is always contagious to an audience, especially when it involves young children.

Three sporting actors have to be mentioned. Bebe Mae Tabickman as Mrs. Brill the housekeeper, and Matthew Fairlee as Robertson, the butler. Both were more than up to doing the physical comedy required for their role. (note: Bebe, if I were as attractive in real life as you are, I would never hide behind character makeup. Good job).  

Also worth watching were Brendan Rosell and Charles Walljasper Robinson. Although, you may have to look carefully for them.

This was a good production, but the sound system came close to making it a disaster for me. It may have been where we were seated but my group had trouble hearing over the band. It was an annoyance during the vocal solos, but terrible as undermusic during some of the speeches. Way too loud! I feel confident that the problem will be solved for future performances.

MARY POPPINS closes July 3rd. Leading Ladies opens on the 26th of June in the Cabaret. Call 570-748-8083 for box office information or visit their website for tickets and more information.

BOOK REVIEW: Fun Home

A while back I reviewed a book titled FUN HOME by Alison Bechdel in a newspaper column (and, unfortunately, not on my blog). I had originally picked it up because I knew Alison’s mother, a talented and fascinating woman. To put it mildly,the book was not at all what I expected.

Sub-titled A Family Tragicomic, FUN HOME is a graphic novel (hence the “comic” in “tragicomic”) that tells the coming of age story of Alison and her rather unorthodox family. The father was an English teacher who was also the  town’s funeral director; the mother also taught English and was active in local theater.

Alison knew from an early age that she was gay but did not find out that she had this in common with her father until she was in college, shortly before his questionable death.

The book is is brilliantly done. It is hard not to get caught up in the family dynamics and the artwork is especially well done. Although the story is told in cartoon fashion drawings, one portrait of the mother is beautifully executed. I was really impressed when I read FUN HOME.

Now to the present: No matter what is on my schedule, life gets put on hold the night of the Tony Awards. I knew that FUN HOME had been made into a musical and had been nominated for an award. It was almost with personal pride that I watched the show win five awards including Best Actor in a Musical (Michael Cerveris) and, in my opinion the top prize, Best Original Musical.

FUN HOME is also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. (We could have titled this post “Local Girl Does Extremely Well”. ) Alison’s most recent book is Are You My Mother; A Comic Drama. Also a  collection of her comic strips has been published, The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For, taken from twenty five years of the popular strip.

PS. You young women may be familiar with the Bechdel Test, a test to determine how women relate through conversation in movies. Check this year’s winners and losers.

THEATER REVIEW: The Queen of Bingo

Millbrook Playhouse has opened for their summer season. Millbrook has been my summer destination for 52 years and it looks as if this is going to be another fantastic season. The play selections run from  Mary Poppins to Dial M for Murder by way of Ring of Fire. Also, although I was happy to see some new names listed in future programs, I was happy to see some old favorites, too

THE QUEEN OF BINGO was a good choice to open the season. The full house obviously had a great time if the level of laughter was any indication. THE QUEEN OF BINGO may not be heavy in plot line, but fortunately the character actors playing the two sisters, with lots of help from the good Father Mac, had the talent to keep the action going. Each of the two acts was over before I knew it.

We have seen Shannon Agnew before on the stage at Millbrook, but as Babe she had a chance to go really wild. Shannon has the most “crazed” eyes and that alone would have told us that she was out of control, and her use of stage space was beautiful----except of course when she did a perfect Virgin Mary.

Courtney Cook as Sis, on the other hand, allowed us to see her thoughts through  very expressive facial expressions. Her conflict of truly worrying about her sister’s breakdown and concerns about the impression they were making in the bingo hall was touching… and very funny. I hope that Courtney is an actress that we see again. Her comedic timing is very natural and I want to see her in other parts

If you have ever played bingo, you know what an “early bird” is, but have you ever played a “middle bird”? During intermission, Father Mac led the audience through the fun of playing the middle bird for a chance to win a turkey. Father Mac, aka as Aaron Kelly, did a great job of working the audience to the point that the tension was thick. (My friend Norma won the turkey; we were so proud of her.)

THE QUEEN OF BINGO does not have a plot to cause an audience to hold its collective breath. Instead it depends on the interaction of the characters to keep that audience laughing. Lucky for us, it worked.

THE QUEEN OF BINGO will run until Sunday, July 21st in the Poorman Cabaret. Mary Poppins opens on June 18 on the Ryan Main Stage. Call the box office at 570-748-8083 for more information or go online to purchase tickets.

BOOK REVIEW: Tallgrass

On February 19, 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This order led to the assembly and incarceration of over 120,00 persons of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. These American citizens were forced from their homes to live in detention camps under very primitive conditions . Sandra Dallas uses this part of our history for her book TALLGRASS.

Thirteen-year-old Rennie lives on a sugar beet farm near the small town of Ellis, Colorado. She is in town with her father when the first busloads of Japanese arrive from California to live in the camp, Tallgrass, built near her home. The nasty remarks of some of the townspeople do not make sense to her. Nor does the fact that her father has to walk away from an angry confrontation when he goes to the defense of these newcomers.

Rennie herself has to learn to walk away from fights at school when her father hires several of the young men from Tallgrass to help with the planting of his beets. Rennie’s brother, along with most of the young men of the community, are serving in the military and the farmers need help. Having these “foreigners” in the community does not sit well with some of the people and when a young girl is raped and murdered the blame falls on the young men working for Rennie’s family.

TALLGRASS blends an uncomfortable part of American history with the coming of age of a young girl, a murder, and maybe some lessons in honesty and being human. Full of complex characters and some gritty scenes, the book never loses a touch of innocence, due in most part to the age of the narrator and the fact that it is told from her viewpoint.

The father/daughter relationship in TALLGRASS may remind the reader of To Kill a Mockingbird. Also, Rennie, like Scout, learns that bad things can happen to good people and that people are not always what they seem to be. The theme may be similar, but TALLGRASS stands on its own laurels.

Sandra Dallas is definitely one of my favorite authors and you will find her books mentioned in POV quite often. She is not afraid to tackle sensitive subjects with honesty and develops characters that draw the reader into the story until the fact that this might be a new way to see something out of your comfort zone is forgotten...and there is always someone to root for--- a very important element in a book.

I have enjoyed many of Ms. Dallas’ books, but TALLGRASS will stand out. The author says that she was inspired in part by the comparisons with Guantanamo Bay, but as I was reading it, I could not help but notice the similar acts of prejudice resulting in violence in the current news.

BOOK REVIEW: The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes

Several years ago, on one of our trips to The Outer Banks of North Carolina, I discovered the author Diane Chamberlain. Her Keeper of the Light trilogy was the perfect read for an area known for its lighthouses. Since then, she is one of the authors that I like to bring on our vacation to Hatteras Island. Some of her books have been good some not so much. THE SECRET LIFE OF CEECEE WILKES was good.

Sixteen year old CeeCee Wilkes has been alone since the death of her mother four years earlier. She had spent most of those four years in various foster home, but is now on her own. She is working as a waitress in a college town diner, saving money to start college.

When grad student Timothy Gleason becomes her boyfriend/lover there is nothing that she will not do for him. He makes her feel important and loved, the first that she has felt that way since the death of her mother.

Twenty years later, CeeCee is now Eve Bailey and is happily married with two grown daughters. Her life has been good, until the day that she sees on the news that Timothy has been arrested for the murder of a woman and her infant. Eve knows that she is the only person who can save Timothy from the death penalty . She had been there when the woman died;Timothy had not. Telling the truth may save Timothy, but it will destroy the new life that she has so carefully created for herself and the family that she loves.

THE SECRET LIFE OF CEECEE WILKES is a good book for vacation reading. The heroine is a young girl who quickly arouses our sympathy. The early chapters begin with a section from the letters that her mother had written to her before she died. We are on CeeCee’s side even when she is responsible for the unthinkable.

Many people in the book have secrets of their own, some that we never learn, We meet people who live lives completely off the grid making us wonder how easy it would be to develop a new identity and go on with a regular, normal life.

Author Diane Chamberlain makes us take a look at what constitutes family love and what do you do when loyalty and the sense of right and wrong clash with that love. Her books may be a hit or miss thing, but if you need a light vacation read, she might be worth the gamble.