Brief “Reviews” (Really brief!) of “The Family Chao,” Why Didn’t You Tell Me?,” and “Lucy by the Sea”

Here I very briefly review three excellent books I have recently read. First is “The Family Chao” (W. W. Norton, 2022), by Lan Samantha Chang, a crowded, dense novel overflowing with family matters, intrigue, and even a possible murder. It is both serious and funny. Its focus on the family Chinese restaurant brings in cultural issues, but most of all, its focus is how families do or don’t work, and the complexities of that question. The next book, “Why Didn’t You Tell Me?” (Crown, 2022) is also much concerned with cultural issues, but in this case the book is a memoir. The author, Carmen Rita Wong, writes of her family of black and Latina women, as well as her immigrant father, “Papi” Wong, and her white American stepfather. There are complicated blended families, and underneath it all, family secrets which the author sensed, but didn’t find out until much later, thus the source of the title. This is a rich, compelling, moving narrative. The third book is Elizabeth Strout’s latest, “Lucy by the Sea” (Random House, 2022). I am a great admirer of her fiction, and was so happy to read this novel, especially as it features one of her earlier characters from her other novels, Lucy Barton. In this novel, which takes place during the COVID pandemic, Lucy’s ex-husband William takes her (whose second husband has recently died) away from Manhattan (which, as we remember, in the early months of the pandemic was overwhelmed with illness and death) to a small town in Maine to protect her from the virus as much as possible. The two – Lucy and William – are still friends and still care deeply about each other, despite the pain they suffered during the time of their separation and divorce. Other characters in the story are the couple’s children, neighbors, and friends. The story is both set in the large frame of a significant and traumatic time, and focuses on the close-up intimacies of family, connections, day-to-day living, and reflections on what is really important in the characters’ lives. I personally love this kind of close-up, quiet detailing of “ordinary” (although in the midst of extraordinary) life. A beautifully written novel. I will always read everything that Elizabeth Strout writes.

"Fellowship Point," by Alice Elliott Dark

I have just stumbled, half-dazed (in a good way!), out of the complicated, layered world of the novel “Fellowship Point” (Scribner, 2022), by Alice Elliott Dark. This is a truly original, striking novel that powerfully draws the reader in. The Fellowship Point of the title is an idyllic space in Maine where the main characters go during the summers. The homeowners there have formed – legally and socially – a unique community, one which is now threatened with development that would spoil the unique character of the area, along with its history and natural environment. The story also encompasses so much more – 80 years of history, family and other connections, concern for the environment and for the Native American original inhabitants of the area, two writers, one of whom writes two iconic book series, reflections on the roles of women in society, portrayals of childhood, issues of money and social class, and much more. The most compelling features of this 576-page novel are, for me, the main characters and the world they have created at Fellowship Point. The central character is Agnes, the author of the children’s book series, “Nan When,” and the secret author of an adult series, the “Franklin Square” novels, which is about the social world in Philadelphia, where she lives when not at Fellowship Point. She is active, thoughtful, feminist, strong-willed, opinionated, judgmental but empathetic (sometimes!). Her voice is distinctive. Her best and dearest friend since childhood, Polly, is more traditional, in her roles of wife and mother, but is much more of an individual thinker than others realize. One of my favorite things about the novel is its focus on two older women (in their early eighties), a focus that is not very common in fiction. There are also other compelling characters, including children. The story is mainly situated in the 1960s and the 2000s (jumping back and forth). Themes include family, love, duty, freedom, independence, interconnection, nature, varying definitions of “home,” trauma, mental health, and so much more. This is a unique, engrossing, and thought-provoking novel, and I recommend it highly.

RIP Camen Callil, Founder of Virago Press

Carmen Callil, the founder of Virago Press, died October 17, 2022, at the age of 84, of leukemia. This is sad news indeed. But I write to celebrate the groundbreaking, earthshaking press she started in 1973, which focused on reviving literary works by women authors. Its imprint “Virago Modern Classics” reissued the work of such “forgotten” writers as Rebecca West and Antonia White. Virago’s distinctive green covers alerted readers to the hundreds of women writers it published. I personally read many of these. The Guardian states that with Virago, Callil “transformed the canon of English literature.” (Thanks too to the New York Times’ obituary for some of the information above.) I and many, many other readers are deeply grateful to Callil and to Virago. RIP, Carmen Callil, and thank you!

"Waiting at Chez Panisse: Memoirs of an Exiled Maitre d': Volume 1," by Jerry Budrick

Regular readers of this blog will know that I savor reading about the world of restaurants, and I enjoy memoirs. I have written here about memoirs of various restaurateurs, chefs, servers, and critics, as well as about other food-related books; see my posts of, for example, 2/4/10 (which contains a list of such books), 4/26/11, and 5/12/12. Recently I read “Waiting at Chez Panisse: Memoirs of an Exiled Maitre d’: Volume 1,” (Service Non Compris Books, 2021) by Jerry Budrick. Budrick was one of the co-founders of the famed Berkeley, California restaurant, Chez Panisse, and was also, as the title suggests, the maître d’ there for many years. As one of the leaders of the restaurant, his duties were far more, and more diverse, than the (of course important) role of maître d’/server. He tells readers that he has been writing this book for many, many years, long after he left Chez Panisse, finally completing it last year, and with the subtitle of “Volume 1,” planning to write more about the Chez Panisse experience. Unfortunately, he died soon after this book was published – July 24, 2022, at age 78 – and so, sadly, there will be no Volume 2. The book is very frank, and full of many delicious details of great interest to anyone who loves the world of restaurants, including lots of good gossip. We definitely get the sense of being taken behind the scenes at this iconic restaurant. Since Chez Panisse is just across the Bay from where I live, and I have been fortunate enough to have several amazing meals there, I was even more interested. Of course Alice Waters is the face of the restaurant, and chef Jeremiah Tower, who was involved with the restaurant early on, is the other “big name” associated with the restaurant. But Budrick makes clear that it was a group, a community, that built and ran the restaurant, including himself. There is a streak in this book of the author’s occasional resentment against, if not Alice Waters herself (who was also at one point Budrick’s romantic partner) directly, then definitely against the idolization of and mystique around Waters at the expense of all the other people who contributed to – in fact allowed and ensured – the great success and fame of Chez Panisse, including surviving some precarious times. There is even a tincture of score-settling. But overall, the tone of the book is positive, in the sense of the author’s being proud of the restaurant and all it has achieved over the years. The restaurant also became a community, one that was important for, and treasured by, Budrick. The quality of the writing is competent but not striking, but it almost doesn’t matter, because the subject matter, and the author’s candor, are so appealing. Although I had already read several accounts of the beginnings and development of Chez Panisse, including accounts by and about Alice Waters and Jeremiah Tower, I very much enjoyed reading Budrick’s book and learning more about this amazing restaurant, as well as feeling I was getting an inside scoop about the happenings and intrigues there.