Cape Cod is my summer home, although we love Maine, too.  In fact, this year's family vacation is in Denmark, Maine.  Richard Russo's novel, That Old Cape Magic puts the Cape and Maine as settings.  I loved reading and recognizing everything, although regrettably, Silver Lounge isn't there anymore, I do remember it well.

Russo introduces us to Jack's parents, who were constantly vying against each other and criticizing everything.  Later, he copies them unconsciously.  Jack's wife, Joy, had parents who placed family first.  Jack made fun of them.  

The story takes place between two weddings, their daughter's and her friends.  One if on the Cape and the other is in Maine.

Did I tell you that this novel has its humor?  Everyone is a cynic and sarcastic and at times, it's funny. For example, Jack's parents die and have requested that their ashes be scattered on the Cape.  So, for a good year, Jack carries their ashes in the trunk of his car.  One on one side of the trunk, and the other, on the other.  When he finally does scatter them, it's one on the Bay side, and the other on the ocean side.

Jack's mother is in his head, literally.  He can hear her sarcastic comments.  At times, he answers audibly.  But once the ashes are disposed of, the voice is quieter.

The story is OK, but the setting covers a lot of sins.

A Good Mystery

 

Chances Are...by Richard Russo is about three friends vacationing on Martha's Vineyard.  Lincoln, Teddy, and Mickey met in college. For graduation, Lincoln invited the other two to his summer home on Martha's Vineyard. There's a girl in the picture, Jacy.

Russo masterly weaves two time periods together.  At that graduation fling, Jacy disappears.  She is never heard from again.  She was engaged (not to Lincoln, Teddy, or Mickey) and had two concerned parents.  No one heard from her.

The other time period is the present time.  Lincoln invited Teddy and Mickey once again.  Lincoln is thinking of selling the property and this might be the only chance the three friends will ever see each other again.  After all, they are now senior citizens.

Naturally, the three reminisce.  The topic is Jacey.  They fantasize about many scenarios.  Lincoln even does some research reading old newspapers, at the library.  He talks to an old policeman who once was the police chief.  

I suspected the jerk neighbor.  But some evidence pointed to Mickey.  The novel is a mystery. It is one of those books that you stay up until two in the morning reading.

And it was worth it.

Russo's Mom

 "Elsewhere" by Richard Russo is a brutally honest review of his upbringing.  His mother is the center and his life, then his wife's, and finally his children's all are affected by her.  

    Nothing could satisfy his mother.  She wanted out of town but then she wanted to go back.  She wanted to work but every job was unsatisfactory.  She wanted friends but they weren't right for her.

    Through it all, Richard Russo did the best he could.  He had a life and family and tried to make it all work.  It was impossible.

    Later, after her death, he could see that she was mentally and emotionally ill.  It probably ran in the family.  At the time, however, going through it, you are caught up trying to keep afloat through the tumultuous cares of each day.  You do the best you can.  Many would have quit, but Russo isn't made that way.  He is lovingly loyal and has faith that all things pass and things will get better.  

     I see Russo in his fictitious characters.  I see Russo's hometown in his novels.  I see an acknowledgment of the reality of situations with hopeful eyes looking ahead.  

Small Town Life

"Do you understand forgiveness?" "The concept, I guess." "I mean how it works." "Somebody's an asshole and you tell him it's okay?" "That's a willful misrepresentation." "As in untrue?" "As in half true." This is Sully speaking to Miss Beryl. This dialogue is typical Sully. Richard Russo, the author of "Everybody's Fool" is very adept at language diction. The reader can hear the words ringing authenticity. This novel is a sequel to "Nobody's Fool." Sully was the main protagonist in that one. Sully's also in "Everybody's Fool," but the story is about the police chief, Douglas Raymer. It is a funny, page-turning novel. The chief is everybody's fool and the story is about his wife's death, her cheating on him, and her need to be loved by everyone. In trying to figure what happened, Chief Raymer finds a lot about himself, too. Woven around and in the Chief's story are Sully, Rub and Ruth, and many of the characters from "Nobody's Fool." The humor in the story will have the reader laughing out loud. No human can read "Everybody's Fool" with out a smile on their face and/or a tear in their eye. It's life. Everyone knows a Chief Raymer and Sully. It's about our lives.

Too Many Fools

At first, I loved Richard Russo's novel, Nobody's Fool.  But now that I finished it, I don't.  Oh, Russo is an excellent writer.  He had me hooked.  I stayed up late until I finished the book.  I enjoyed the deprecating zingers the characters snapped back at each other.  I thought the different scenarios the author put us through were creative. I really do recommend the book.

But I know too many Sullys.  My Dad was close to being one.  I worked with one.  My co-worker needed a set of false teeth.  He saved and saved until he had enough money.  The weekend before he was to be fitted, he gambled away his savings.  So he had no false teeth.  Isn't that something Sully would do?

Sully is the protagonist.  He's mostly unemployed.  When he works he's in construction.  I know a lot of those construction workers too.  Many are day workers, like Sully.  Sully's son loses his teaching job and starts to work alongside Sully.  The characters are very well drawn.  I either know them in real life or can imagine them easily.  The dialogue is humorous.

I'm giving this book to my friend, Joan, to enjoy.  She needs to get a grip on reality and see how the other half lives.  

The Importance of a Name

My granddaughter's Baptism, where she was given the common Christian name, Lucy, with common spelling.

All my life I have struggled with my name, "Faith."  From childhood to adulthood, I hated my name.  It made me a shy child.  It made me different.  And as a child, that's not a good thing.  I remember as a Brownie Girl Scout, knocking on doors to sell my cookies, and people yelling from inside, "Who is it?"  I would answer, "Faith."  They's say, "Who?"  I'd repeat, "Faith, even louder."  They'd repeat louder, "Who?"  (In fact, this happens today, too.)  People never understood what I was saying.  So I tended to not enter into situations that would possibly involve people asking my name.

I know as an adult, you're probably thinking, "but I like different names".  That may be nice to read a pretty sounding name, as a character in a book, but in reality, living with a different name can be a burden.  It makes me wonder about the intelligence of parents who give their babies different names.  Don't they think?  Rather, what are they thinking?  Certainly, not about the child!  Don't they realize that they are assigning their child to a lifetime of giving their name--numerous times, explaining their name, spelling their name, and maybe even ridicule?

One reason for a parent giving a child a name that is different, and which I think is despicable is, "I like it."
How selfish can you get?  "I like it!"   Not a thought given to the child.  "I..." !!!!!!!

May God forgive your selfish, egoistic, affected, self-centered, self-interest, self-seeking, self-regarding thoughtlessness; because your child may not.


The same prayer also holds true to those (selfish, egoistic, affected, self-centered, self-interest, self-seeking, self-regarding thoughtless) parents who change the spelling of a common name to make it different.  They have just burdened their child with a weird name--every blasted time they say their name, they have to include the spelling.  I know many of these parents.  And the reason they give for changing the spelling of a common name is precisely to make it different.  Yes, that's the reason.  Believe it.  Again, they are not thinking of what they are doing to the child; they liked it.


All my life I have been on this rant.  People with common names have no clue how serious I am.  A person's name can shape the personality of that person.  I know first hand--it made me shy.  Since most people have ordinary names, they think I'm exaggerating.  I remember the first speech I gave at Toastmaster's was on this subject.  A first speech in Toastmaster's is an introduction of oneself.  I was too shy to talk about me, so I took the focus off me and talked about nomenclature, in general.  The speech turned into a similar sort of rant, like this post.  You know what happened?  They laughed at me.  Yes, they thought I was giving a humorous speech!  I even told them to stop laughing because I was serious.  Yes, all those "Johns and Anns" could not relate.

When I went to college, I thought I'd be rid of the name.  I went by "F. Donna."   That's my first initial and middle name.  I got the idea from F. Scott Fitzgerald.  It worked.  But!  I then had to explain what the "F" stood for.  When people heard that "F" stood for "Faith," I was subjected to being reprimanded for being ashamed of a pretty name, for dishonoring my parents for not using that name, to the usual jokes about the name "Faith,"  yada yada....to the point of my feeling silly for wanting to change "Faith" to "Donna".  It was silly.  It backfired.  It caused me more embarrassment.  

Interestingly, I dropped that affected "F. Donna," on the advice of my manager.  We were real estate brokers.  He said that no one would remember Donna.  People would be more likely to remember Faith, and in Real Estate, you want to be remembered, so people will think of you when they want to sell or buy property.  Since I regretted the "F. Donna," change, anyway, I welcomed the chance to go back to my given name.

Recently, two happenstances have occurred to bring these hurtful remembrances to the forefront.  One is an audio book, and the other is Pope Benedict XVI's homily on the Feast of Epiphany.

I am listening to Richard Russo's Bridge of Sighs. The major character is Louis Charles Lynch.  Unfortunately, his life took a turn when his kindergarten teacher read his name as "Louis C."  From then on, Lou became known as "Lucy."  If I were in graduate school, I'd write my dissertation on how the nickname, "Lucy," helped to shape the life of this child, Louis C. Lynch, and  even continued to determine his adulthood.  But I'm not writing a dissertation, so I just listen and empathize.

I realize that the parents of Louis C. did not purposely give their son a name that set him up for ridicule.  **it happens.  But my point is the importance of names, and this novel is an excellent example.

The other circumstance was the homily the Pope gave when he baptized 21 babies of Vatican employees.
In his homily, B16 recommended that people give their children distinctively Christian names because in today's denigration of family culture, kids need all the help they can get. A patron saint will aid the child to grow in faith, and hopefully inspire the child to live up to Christian ideals.

While, I certainly can see where B16 is coming from, I must add my own codicil.  I recommend parents give their children common Christian names.  (Reread my first few paragraphs if you don't remember why.)

I know what of I speak.  I have a Christian name, and that Christian name, for most of my life, has caused me problems.  As a child, it caused embarrassment.  As a teenager, ridicule.  As an adult, sometimes embarrassment, sometimes ridicule, sometimes attention,  all of it unwanted.


There are two other people in the world with my name--at least on Facebook.  We've connected (Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg).  In commiserating about our name, we listed the jokes we've heard, i.e.,  "Do you have two sisters named Hope and Charity?".  It was a sad list.  It's not funny to me.  I fail to see the humor in ridicule.  Although, I understand that most people don't intend to be hurtful.  "Oh Lord, forgive them.  They know not what they do."  (Luke 23:34)

All because of a name.

Names are important.  Parents think of the child; not what you like--the child, the child, the child!  A name can influence a person's life.

And you want to know the kicker?  My name has nothing to do with Christianity, nor religion, and definitely not God.  My father gave me the name "Faith," with hopes that I would believe in nothing--except myself.

I guess I showed him.

Related articles

• Pope Decries Giving Kids Non-Christian Names (foxnews.com)
• Pope Urges Parents to Stop Giving Children Non-Christian Names (foxnews.com)
• Pope makes a plea to parents to give their children traditional names (dailymail.co.uk)
• Pope baptizes newborns in Sistine Chapel (foxnews.com)