Paddock’s Picks: Red Hook Road

Editor’s note:  Anita Paddock’s review of books we should read are scheduled to appear on the second Friday of each month. Enjoy.

review by Anita Paddock
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The author of this wonderfully elegant book says the question authors loathe is, “Where do you get your ideas?” The answer is so very simple, Ayelet Waldman says. Her ideas come from her friends, somebody’s mom or dad, or perhaps a newspaper article that she read and filed away.

Her new novel, “Red Hook Road,” began many years ago when she read about a bride and groom killed in a limo on the way from their wedding to their reception. The horror of that day, for the dead couple starting out a new life together, and what it must have done to their family and friends, made Waldman wonder if she could use a real-life tragedy and turn it into a novel. She did. This is it.

The novel takes place in a small village in Maine and centers around two families. There is the Maine family ruled by the divorced mom, Jane Tetherly, who cleans houses for a living. Her son, John, falls in love with Becca Copaken, the daughter of an aristocratic family from New York who spend their summers in a longtime-owned vacation home.

Iris Copaken is the matriarch of this Jewish family who live in Manhattan, and the daughter of Mr. Kimmelbrod, a world renowned violinist who survived the Holocaust, and who provides a calming influence which is gleaned from his life and his music.

The novel opens with the wedding of John and Becca,  the blond, suntanned apples of their families’ eye. Through terrific dialogue and beautiful description, Waldman shows the reader the huge differences between the families.

John is restoring a wooden boat, something that Maine natives admire for both their beauty and practicality. Becca has abandoned  a promising career as a violinist in order to join John in marriage and in his ship building endeavor.

During the wedding festivities, the author introduces us to the couple’s siblings, the drunken father of the groom, the no-nonsense intolerant mother of the groom, the bride’s rich and intellectual mother who teaches Holocaust studies at Columbia, the bride’s father who has never measured up to his wife’s expectations, and the bride’s grandfather. Any attendee at the wedding would most certainly wonder if the marriage would last.

After the couple is killed in an accident on the way to their reception, the reader is allowed to see how each person left behind copes with the deaths of John and Becca. These coping skills seem to follow the well-known stages of death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. And we also learn that music and literature help.

And sometimes the forces of Mother Nature can help heal all wounds.

I especially liked reading about the picturesque scenes of Maine, the strong sense of duty and pride the natives exhibited year round, even in the harshest of winters. I could almost taste a lobster roll, boiled corn on the cob, and fresh blueberry pie.

I had never read this author before, but I heartedly recommend her skillful way of telling a story.  You will want to add this book to the pile already on your nightstand.

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Peggy Weidman of Fort Smith recently returned from a cruise that included a stop in Bar Harbor, Maine. She took a bus tour that included stops for lobster rolls, boiled corn, and blueberry pie.

“Bar Harbor is a beautiful little village of 7,000 or so people. I bought some blueberry tea in one of the cute shops,” Weidman said. “I found the town people delightful and not at all unfriendly to tourists,  whom they depend upon for summer income.”

Peggy, born in Kansas City, moved to Fort Smith in 1963 with her husband, Bill. Before too long, the family table was set for five sons and two busy parents. All the sons are grown now, with children of their own. Peggy takes each grandchild on a special trip, doing her best to give each child a visit to a special place like New York City or Washington, D.C.

When Peggy was a young girl, her favorite authors were Thomas Costain and Daphne du Maurier. Her Irish heritage has always influenced her choices of favorite authors. Two favored books, “My Dream of You” and “Are You Somebody?” by Nuala O’Saolain are sitting on a shelf right now in her bedroom.

Peggy also appreciates the works of Edna O’Brien.

She is from the same little village of “Tuangraney, in County Clare, where my ancestors came from,” she said proudly. “I read to learn about other cultures, and then I plan a trip to see what I’ve read about.”