Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin was book group's January selection and none of us finished it. At first I thought the writing was lyrical--the author uses 50 words to describe something where 5 would suffice--but I soon tired of his style. Nearly halfway through the book I realized I didn't care about his characters and gave up. Checking the Amazon reviews, this seems to be an "either-or" book--some people think it's the greatest ever and others don't care for it at all. I'm in the latter group!
Mrs. Kennedy and Me by her Secret Service agent, Clint Hill, was so interesting to me. I was ten years old when JFK was assassinated in November 1963. Growing up Roman Catholic in Massachusetts, it was quite special when our native son and fellow Catholic was inaugurated in 1960--the Kennedys were like gods to us.
At first disappointed when he was reassigned from President Eisenhower's security detail to cover the new President-elect's wife, Clint Hill soon fell under Jackie's spell. It's actually a very sweet memoir and I learned some things about her that I never realized--she smoked, lived away from the White House most of the time that JFK was president, and she traveled extensively without JFK during his short presidency--charming world leaders and their citizens alike wherever she went. It's safe to say Jackie saw a lot more of Clint Hill than of her husband! The children had nannies and Jackie didn't seem to spend much time with them, but she was one of the first jet-setters. These are my observations and not the author's, and this book is a fascinating look back at the Camelot era. Incidentally, in video footage of the assassination, Mr. Hill is the SS agent seen climbing over the trunk of the presidential limousine immediately after gunshots were fired.
The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation by Elizabeth Letts is a horse-lover's dream. Saved from a truck headed for the slaughterhouse by a young Dutch immigrant named Harry deLeyer who was looking for a gentle school horse, Snowman goes on to become a champion show-jumper at the national level in the late 1950s-early 1960s. Nicknamed "Teddy Bear" due to his genial nature, the photo of Harry's young children piled on the horse and swimming in Long Island Sound is priceless. There's a saying along the lines of "when the student is ready, the teacher appears" and Harry is the perfect teacher for Snowman. It's a sweet, heart-warming story for anyone who loves horses.
Book group's selection for this month, Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple is a quick and creative read. The author's descriptions of people in the Seattle/Redmond/Microsoft area are laugh-out-loud funny. Could the events in this story actually happen? Probably not, but it's original and fun.
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