No-one who read Updike's 1984 novel The Witches of Eastwick, or indeed saw the extremely successful 1987 movie adaptation, can fail to recall his bewitching coven of 1960s belles (played marvellously by Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer).
His sequel, set more than three decades after the end of the first book, sees the trio older (nay, aged), widowed and looking for resolution. They pass their time, as fairly wealthy American widows will, travelling the world, but finding nothing of substance at the Pyramids or on cruise ships, until one of them suggests a return to Eastwick. In this old Rhode Island seaside town they find shadows of former loves, lingering traces of their evil deeds, and people who remember them. And some of those do not wish them well.
Just as the first book saw Updike developing his female characters for the first time in his writing career, so The Widows of Eastwick is notable as a delicate and gently humorous portrayal of womanhood past its prime, of widowhood, of the darkening fears of age and the search for contentment and some sort of resolution.
I loved The Witches of Eastwick when it first arrived on the scene. And being a big fan of Jack Nicholson et al., I loved the movie too. With this sequel, Updike didn't let me down. And I think he won't let you down either.
Biblios Reviewer : Louise, A View from Carmine Superiore. Copyright © Louise Bostock 2009. All rights reserved
The Widows of Eastwick, John Updike
Perseverance, Carolyn Rubenstein
As we grow older, many of us start to think more about our mortality, to fear what lies beyond, and most of all what lies ahead for us in an old age statistically likely to be not unscathed by illness of one sort or another. And many of us, I know, carry in the backs of our minds a fear of one illness most of all - cancer.
But cancer is not only a disease of old age. It can affect children and young people as well, those with the hopes and dreams of long lives ahead of them.
Carolyn Rubenstein's book, published on 18th August by TOR/Forge, is subtitled "True voices of cancer survivors". It is a collection of thought-provoking and moving stories about 20 people of college age who have lived through childhood cancer and have come out the other side, going on to achieve incredible goals despite disadvantages brought to them by the disease. Rob Dooley, for example, earned himself a college degree and entered graduate school despite cognitive deficits from brain cancer. Zac York climbed Mount Whitney on crutches after being given the all-clear.
The book uses the words of the cancer patients themselves to explore feelings about having the disease of course, but also the role of parents, friends, doctors and teachers. It raises questions of religious faith and fear of dying. Ultimately, its message is one of inspiration and hope. And it could bring insight to all of us whether we are ourselves touched by cancer or whether we are called upon to confront it in our friends, family or colleagues
A note about the extraordinary author of this book. Carolyn Rubenstein is currently working towards her PhD in clinical psychology at Harvard. Her involvement with children and young people with cancer began, however, when she started a pen-pal scheme that enabled young cancer patients to write to their healthy peers. Carolyn's Compassionate Children (CCC) a non-profit organisation sprang from these beginnings, providing emotional and financial resources to childhood cancer survivors by increasing opportunity for college access and success. Since its inception in 2000 the organisation has awarded more than 100 college scholarships.
This book should be to hand anywhere there are young people facing cancer. It could be a life-saver.
All proceeds from the book will be donated to CCC and the Chordoma Foundation.
For more on the day-to-day work of living with a child with cancer, check out Where Laughter Lives. The Riggs family story also is inspirational.
Biblios Reviewer : Louise, A View from Carmine Superiore. Copyright © Louise Bostock 2009. All rights reserved.
Gardening Eden, Michael Abbaté
"This is the current state of our planet. The air, ocean, land, and fresh water resources given to us by the Creator are suffering. The garden is in decline. There are pragmatic reasons to be concerned, economic reasons to alter our course, and spiritual reasons to consider a new way of living. But within the community of faith, where is the concern, the sense of urgency?"
Along the way, we read some truly beautiful passages from scripture and some very insightful anecdotes and thinking from this award-winning landscape architect. Abbaté is well-placed to write on this subject, combining as he does his experience in sustainable landscape design and resource planning with his many years at the centre of his spiritual community.
The book is well-written, persuasively and thoughtfully argued, and if you're still on the fence on the conservation issue, this book will bring you down firmly on the side of Creation Care.
"Conservation is a conservative issue. And if you're a Christian, it really doesn't matter what your political stripe is - God put us here to care for his garden. Some in the faith community believe that this planet is like giant bank account of natural resources that God gave us access to. It is here for our use and enjoyment. But the earth isn't a trust-fund, it's a limited chacking account. And we've got to make investments in the natural world to keep it healthy and thriving."
Biblios Reviewer : Louise, A View from Carmine Superiore. Copyright © Louise Bostock 2009. All rights reserved.
The Last Templar, Raymond Khoury
"A sure sign of a lunatic is that sooner or later he brings up the Templars"...(Umberto Eco, apparently.)
Okay, okay, so Umberto Eco has me classified as a lunatic. So sue me - join the queue.
This book has been lurking around in my Amazon recommendations list for what seems like decades. And finally, when someone very near and dear to me gave me an enormous Amazon gift voucher for my birthday, I knew the time had come.
The Last Templar is a good read, much in the same vein as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, but with lots more history, theology and archaeology thrown in. The story starts with the interruption of the gala opening of an exhibition of Vatican treasures by four horsemen in Templar garb wielding broad swords and doing a fair amount of damage, and leads by some fairly gripping leaps and bounds to a reasonably unexpected conclusion on an island in the Dodecanese. Along the way, our heroine tussles with her ambition and our hero suffers a crisis of faith, various documents are discovered and decoded, and not one, but two antiheroes are unmasked. There's a fair amount of blood, rather a lot of gratuitous breaking of fingers and a number of drowning horses. There's also an interesting sub-plot that's skillfully intertwined with the main storyline.
If you like this kind of thing, what makes this book worth reading perhaps more than some others in this genre is Khoury's ability to portray his main characters in three dimensions. No cardboard cutouts, no black and white. An admirable skill. If you set aside the violence, it's a pretty good book.
But, by God, if the publishers, Duckworth, don't start employing proofreaders soon (my estimate for this job would be a measley 150 squids, kindly note), I'll be donning me chainmail, grabbing the nearest pure white steed and crashing into Cowcross Street to do a bit of damage of me own!
Biblios Reviewer : Louise, A View from Carmine Superiore. Copyright © Louise Bostock 2009. All rights reserved.
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