Articles

Growing food on granite

The work is hard-physically demanding, requiring long hours spent outdoors no matter what the weather, with no guarantee of how much you’ll earn or if you will even make enough to cover your expenses. But you can imagine some contentment from consumers when the product you are harvesting is in kitchens or on a table,

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Adam the King

How to describe this novel, third in Lewis’s “Meritocracy Trilogy”? One way a book gets characterized is through Library of Congress subject headings; in this case, “fiction” about “Jewish men,” “weddings,” “middle age,” “rich people,” “life change events” and “summer resorts.” Well, yes, the book includes all of that. But more importantly, for our purposes

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Islanders by Association

#1.  I’d begin with some disclaimer, some heartfelt admission by me that it is always dicey to write about something as if one boasts some insight, because any perspective is, no matter how well informed, limited by being highly individual.  And I would confess that, as someone “from away,” it is an honor but no

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Olive Kitteridge

What does insight offer us, given the ability to observe oneself or others?  Psychologists might answer it supports change and develops empathy and compassion. Yet, even for ourselves, understanding who we are and why is no small achievement. How can we hope, then, to have that understanding of others? And surely, there are some people

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Barter Island

Down East Books, 2007 A Surfeit of Understanding Barter Island, a novel, is based on some of Peter Scott’s own experience on an island a lot like Isle au Haut. In this sequel to an earlier book, Something in the Water, Scott describes what happened back in the 1970s when hippies and Vietnam vets both

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