FFB: HAMNET. Maggie O'Farrell

 The movie version of this with Paul Mescale and Jessie Buckley will be released at Thanksgiving. 

 

Hamnet, William Shakespeare's only son, died at the age of eleven. HAMNET is Maggie O'Farrell's imaging of the event and the months that followed. In 1580, the Black Death was surging across England. A young Latin tutor, (never named) impregnates a woman several years his senior. Called Agnes in this novel, rather than Anne, she is a woman very much of the land, adept in mixing potions to cure whatever ailed the townsmen of Stratford. The two marry.  

This book is her story rather than her husband's. She bears three children, Hamnet is a twin to Judith, and Suzanne is their elder sister. This is a story of grief, a story of learning to accept living with a husband who is gone much of the time pursuing his writing and stage career. Not until the end of the book does Agnes come to understand what it is her husband is doing in London. This allows her some peace.

There is much about William Shakespeare that is not known, including the exact circumstances of Hamnet's death. Situating it as a result of this plague makes perfect sense.  O'Farrell has taken some of what is known about the man and made it come alive. 

Highly recommended. 

Short Story Wednesday: "The Project" from THE NEW YORKER

 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/09/01/project-fiction-rachel-cusk

 

I really wish I had picked up the collection of short stories set in British grand houses I saw at the library sale because I am sure discerning their meanings would have been easier than this one. Maybe I will go back and get it if the sale is still on. 

The protagonist has several themes in The Project. Two friends experience childhood's end in different ways, the story of her husband's time in a hospital and their subsequent move to a city with their children. This is probably the sort of story you need to read twice and I didn't. It was easy enough to read but I didn't quite pull the strings together.  I don't mind a story that doesn't have a traditional style but this one seemed like three stories-one of them perhaps borrowed from Alice Munro's daughter. 

Todd Mason 

George Kelley 

Jerry House 

Kevin Tipple 

Monday, Monday

I didn't much enjoy FREAKIER FRIDAY. Never much of a Jamie Lee Curtis fan for one thing. I watched the Kurosawa version of HIGH AND LOW on HBO, which is great. Hopefully I will see the Spike Lee one soon. Started THE HOSTAGE and am also watching SON OF CRITCH and FISK, all on Netflix. Still watching PLATONIC on Apple and DOCTOR BLAKE Mysteries on Britbox. Although I read an alarming reason for why the show was cancelled. It's a good enough show but I don't know if I will continue given his wandering hands on set. 

Reading STONEYARD DEVOTIONAL (Charlotte Woods) and THE ANTIDOTE (Karen Russell)  Both are very good. 

Some nice weather.

Kevin and his parents are on their way to Madison. I am sad to think I won't see him until Thanksgiving. His hair is perfectly straight now. I miss the curls but that style is gone, I guess. 

What about you?  

FFB: THE DRAMATIST, Ken Bruen

 

We lost Ken Bruen recently, which is sad. He brought me many great reading hours. I have read several of the wonderful Jack Taylor novels, They all are imbued with great dialogue, poetry, action, angst, Ireland, literary and musical references, quirky characters.

In a word, they are all special. But THE DRAMATIST is my favorite.

Jack Taylor is newly sober in this entry in the series and finding it a chore. Bruen turns the heat up by placing Jack in harm's way in a number of ways. Taylor finds it especially hard to keep things on an even keel when his ex-drug-dealer, now in jail, asks him to find the murderer of his daughter. He also becomes involved with an old lover and her scary husband, a vigilante group, and the usual assortment of Bruen characters and temptations.

Bruen's books are outstanding because of the fully-realized life he invests Taylor with. Oh, and the plots are great, too. But he generously allows you to enter into Jack Taylor's world in a way few authors pull off. You know him. You root for him.

The end of this book will send you over the edge. I guarantee it. I am not much for crying but this one made me bawl.

Short Story Wednesday "Something Has Come to Light" Mirian Toews

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/25/something-has-come-to-light-fiction-miriam-toews 

 

Perhaps you have read novels by Miriam Toews or saw the excellent movie based on one of them, WOMEN TALKING. A memoir by Toews comes out this month. Toews, who fled her Mennonite community at 18, has said she feels the need to write about who she might have been if she stayed. 

This story is set in the Mennonite community in Manitoba. A farm wife near death at an old age tells the story of a boy she met, and refused, as a girl. It is quite short but paints a good picture of a religious community and this particular woman.  

We get so few stories about Mennonites or the Amish. Their world is rarely talked about although there is quite a large community in Sarasota, FL and I see they do have their own publishers and books.  

 

George Kelley 

Tracy K 

Jerry House 

Monday, Monday

 

Enjoying THE DOCTOR BLAKE MYSTERIES on BritBox. Not a lot else although watching some movies here and there (Rohmer's A TALE OF SUMMER) and a bio doc on David Hockney. 

This was the weekend of the WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE, which seems to get bigger each year. Thousands of classic cars to remember. 

Had a final dinner with Kevin and his folks. He leaves for Madison next Sunday.  

Reading THE ANTIDOTE by Karen Russell although it doesn't seem like my kind of book. 

I did enjoy ABSOLUTION for my other book group though. 

What are you doing? 

FFB: A GREAT DELIVERANCE, Elizabeth George

 

I read this in 1988, which was the year it was published. It was George's first Lynley novel and a real corker as the Brits might say. I recently watched it on the series and it was also well done there. I like when the lives of the detectives are part of the story and right from this first book we learn Lynley has been disappointed in love and Carol Havers, his assistant, has a parent with dementia she is responsible for. 

I understand a new series is coming but I am not sure if this will be the first book they refilm. It is quite a bloody and upsetting beginning because it appears a farmer's daughter has murdered him. I am anxious to see who replaces Lynley. 

Short Story Wednesday, THE AGE OF GRIEF, Jane Smiley

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres—a luminous novella and short stories that explore the vicissitudes of love, friendship, and marriage. • “A glorious achievement….. Infinitely satisfying….. A triumph.” —The New York Times Book Review

In “The Pleasure of Her Company,” a lonely, single woman befriends the married couple next door, hoping to learn the secret of their happiness. In “Long Distance,” a man finds himself relieved of the obligation to continue an affair that is no longer compelling to him, only to be waylaid by the guilt he feels at his easy escape. And in the incandescently wise and moving title novella, a dentist, aware that his wife has fallen in love with someone else, must comfort her when she is spurned, while maintaining the secret of his own complicated sorrow. Beautifully written, with a wry intelligence and a lively comic touch, The Age of Grief captures moments of great intimacy with grace, clarity, and indelible emotional power.

A Thousand Acres was Smiley's most successful book-it was a modern take on King Lear. But she was a fine short story writer too. I read this collection in 1988. 

 George Kelley

Jerry House 

TracyK 

Neeru

Monday, Monday

 

Have you read ON THE ROAD? I never made it through although both Phil and Megan were fans and I remember going to an exhibition of artifacts at the NYPL on 42nd Street a few years back. The movie was good enough but all of the info was widely known facts.

Also saw SKETCH, which turned out to be a kids' movie. 

Watching THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT on Britbox, PLATONIC (Apple) and THE GILDED AGE.  Still reading ABSOLUTION. So wickedly hot here. 

We had a water main break here and I have to boil water for another day. Wonder if that is heat-related.  

What about you?  

FFB-A LONG AND HAPPY LIFE, Reynolds Price

 

Published in the sixties, I read this book in 1988. It was Price's first novel, published in the sixties, and immediately launched a fine career. 

From the LA TIMES:

 Reynolds Price’s first novel, “A Long and Happy Life,” originally published in 1962, recounted--or, better, evoked--the back-country courtship of the young Rosacoke Mustian and Wesley Beavers. Beginning with “Wesley’s impulsive and short-lived abandonment of Rosa at her friend’s funeral, encompassing their awkward sexual initiation, the novel culminated with Wesley’s decision to do the right thing by the girl he’d made pregnant. A quarter century later, it remains a nearly perfect novella. Every page declares the open senses and curious heart of an enormously gifted young writer.

Short Story Wednesday: "The Necklace" V. S. Prichett

 

The New Yorker, February 15, 1958 P. 31

A window-cleaner finds a pearl necklace and turns it over to the police. He recalls his actions on the day that it was found, and also how he met his wife, Nell. He remembers her incessant reference to her well-to-do- Aunt Mary throughout their courtship. Later she admitted that Aunt Mary died the previous year. Also apparent is Nell's hatred of liars, of which she constantly reminds her husband. After questioning each one separately, the police bring them together. Nell claims that the necklace was hers, and not found by her husband. Further investigation revealed that she had stolen jewelry previously, and credited her Aunt Mary, who never really existed, with having given it to her. Nell was sentenced to three months in prison.

Quite an odd little story. DeMaupassant's story THE NECKLACE is an influence. The story is read by Paul Theroux on THE NEW YORKER website. 

 George Kelley

Kevin Tipple 

Monday, Monday

A quick one as I am getting home late from seeing a  play RADICAL EMPATHY. As you can imagine it was not a comedy. Also saw the movie FOLK TALES about a school in Norway that tries to get teens to get off their phones and out of their heads and learn some skills, like dog-sledding. 

Reading ABSOLUTION by Alice McDermott. Also THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE (Van Der Kolk)

Watching THE GILDED AGE (HBO), CODE OF SILENCE (Britbox) and various other things. 

A very nice three days here. Hope you are enjoying your weather too.  

THE LIFEBOAT, Charlotte Rogan

 

Charlotte Rogan published her first novel post age 50 in 2012, which gives aspiring novelists a lift. And quite a novel it is. Set in 1914, as World War 1 is beginning, a ship, Empress Alexandra, goes down. Our narrator, a woman of 22, is one of the forty people that manage to get themselves on one of the lifeboats. Her recent husband does not.

We know from the start she is on trial for murder along with two other women. They are accused of pushing the man who has commandeered the lifeboat overboard. The book examines what occurred on the lifeboat, which although said to be fit for forty is vastly overfilled. The weeks spent on the boat are full of degradation, hardship, starvation, madness.

There is an enigmatic quality to our narrator. How did she manage to wrestle her husband away from the woman he was engaged to? How did she manage to get a spot on the boat? How did she come away from the trial with a new husband in tow? Is she the naive woman she appears to be, taking her cues from more experienced travelers? Or is she more savy than her companions, push come to shove.

It will be up to you as the reader to judge her. Perhaps your judgement will be harsher than her jury's. Or perhaps more lenient than her fellow travelers. This is a deep and troubling book you will not soon forget. We learn very little about the men on this boat, but a lot about the woman.
This is fitting, I think. Highly recommended.