December 31

Jayber Crow: The Life Story of Jayber Crow, Barber, of the Port William Membership, As Written by Himself  (2000)
By Wendell Berry


Having recently discovered author Wendell Berry, I spoke with a friend who enthusiastically recommended this book.  The title did not sound very appealing, but as I made my way through Jayber Crow's story, I was taken in not only by the gentle writing, but also by Jayber's observations of changes in a small community that represent epic changes in the social order.

Like his other fiction, Wendell Berry sets this story in the tiny town of Port William, Kentucky.  Jayber, born Jonah in 1914, loses his parents to illness when he is only four years old.  A kindly older couple, known to Jonah as Uncle Othy and Aunt Cordie take him in, providing love and stability; they live next to the river where they run a small general store.  Sadly, they pass away about five years later, and Jonah is sent to an orphanage.  Although he receives an education, J. Crow (as he comes to be known at the orphanage) does not receive love and develops no lasting relationships; his only real joy is reading.  J (eventually called Jay Bird or Jayber) starts seminary, but doesn't feel it's the right fit, and eventually finds work with a local barber who teaches Jayber the trade.  Feeling unrooted, he decides to return to the only home he knew, and walks back to Port William where, coincidentally, the town barber has put his business (including the shop, with living quarters) up for sale - and Jayber finds his profession.

The small town barber's shop is not just a place to get a haircut, but it grows to be a gathering spot for the menfolk in town, regardless of their need for grooming.  "My shop was a democracy if ever anyplace was.  Whoever came I served and let stay as long as they wanted to." (p 213)  Jayber hears it all, and ponders the changes over the years he owns the shop, from about the mid 1930s through the 1970s.  He considers the merits of owning an automobile, the dangers of large-scale farming with machines, the futility of war.

For some action, and a good time with a pretty girl, however, Jayber drives to Hargrave, the next larger town.  Eventually business migrates to Hargrave and the Port William general store closes for lack of customers; the local school closes, and children are bussed to Hargrave.  A government inspector pays a call at Jayber's barber shop where he finds the shop has no running water, so even Jayber closes shop rather than incur the expense of putting in a plumbing system.  Meanwhile, farming, the main livelihood around Port William, is in decline, whether raising crops or raising animals. "...once a fabric is torn, it is apt to keep tearing.  It was coming apart.  The old integrity had been broken," (p 276)  Jayber laments.

Through the years, Jayber shies away from commitment - caring for  Clydie, his woman in Hargrave, but never committing to more than one-night stands.  He never really seems committed to Port William, floating above it all as he listens to the conversation in his shop, but never really condescending to be a part of it.  But Jayber takes a job as a church custodian and grave digger and feels obligated to attend the church services; here he finds himself drawn into the life of the community as he worships with them and grieves with them.

Jayber is especially taken by young Mattie Keith, who marries a man Jayber considers to be unworthy; Jayber always feels protective of Mattie even if he can never have her.  He struggles over certain Scripture verses, and his unrequited love for Mattie helps him to begin to understand the love of God for his children.

Jayber really shares his inner thoughts; he sees his town's way of life disappearing forever; it is "apt to keep tearing."  As he grows emotionally, he is sorrowful over a town and a way of life in which he has finally vested himself, but he is never bitter, instead thankful for each blessing, including Mattie's smile as he bid her a final goodbye.

December 30

American Dialogue: The Founders and Us (2018)

By Joseph Ellis

Prof Ellis has published a number of books about our nation's founders.  Here, in his latest book, he summarizes much of his considerable research in the form of abbreviated biographies of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and George Washington, highlighting their most important contributions to the formation of the new nation.  After each section, he applies the political thinking of each founder to the current political situation in the United States.

Thomas Jefferson idealistically posited that all men are created equal.  Strangely (to our way of thinking) he did not include slaves in that equation and, while he did feel blacks should be free, he did not envision a multiracial America that included black Americans, and that they should be "removed beyond the reach of mixture".  Nevertheless, Jefferson still assumed social and economic equality would be the natural order of American life, even as the nation expanded.  Ellis holds that the ongoing battle for racial equality remains the longest, most challenging struggle in American history.

John Adams, more the realist and pessimist, saw no way to prevent the consolidation of wealth and power by American oligarchs.  "In every society known to man an aristocracy has risen up in the course of time...", wrote Adams. He felt it was naive to assume that American society would be immune to the class divisions so prevalent in Europe.  History has proven Adams right.  Jefferson's vision of an egalitarian society was over long before the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.  Looking back from the present day, while the US experienced several decades of relative equality following the reforms of the New Deal, Ellis asserts that we are in the midst of our second Gilded Age, "which replicates both the plutocratic politics and the high level of economic inequality of the first...the values of capitalism take precedence over the values of democracy and trump the right to pursue happiness for all but the favored few." (p 105)  The brief "Golden Age" in the mid-20th century, when a large middle class could realize the American dream, was in fact a blip largely dependent upon government policies enacted during national crises, then continued by both parties into the 1950s and 60s.  FDR had felt the federal government was responsible for enforcing a social contract, Ellis notes, in which the right to pursue happiness included the right to a job.  Today, "something is not only missing but terribly wrong when these voices [representing the poor and jobless] are absent from our national conversation." (p 115)

James Madison is credited as the founder most responsible for creating our US constitution.  He was the only participant at the Continental Congress who showed up with a plan, which turned out to be not a rewrite of the Articles of Confederation but a whole new document for a new nation - not just a confederacy.  He endorsed a "Living Constitution" which would allow future Americans to interpret its meaning for evolving standards of justice.  Brown v Board of Education (desegregation, giving black students the right to equal education) is one such example.

It fell on George Washington to lead this new nation, to force a group of state-based members of a confederation to act collectively, laying the foundation for a new nation.  "It could never have happened without the guiding presence of a single figure whose transcendent stature was so acknowledged that the awkward contradiction the new republic was living became, instead, a lovely paradox."  Washington set the stage for the new nation's foreign policy for over a century, and it was basically one of isolationism.  With the North American continent isolated by two oceans, this policy was sustainable.  By the turn of the 20th century, however, isolationism became less tenable and brought the US into a number of international wars, with the result that American power and resources turned it into the world's superpower.  Ellis asserts that the govt failed, however, to develop a comprehensive strategy for American policy once the cold war ended in the late 20th century.  Today, the US carries out its foreign policy mostly by wars, devoting most of its budget to the military and only a tiny fraction (16-to-1 ratio) to diplomacy.

George Washington had recognized that the American experience was exceptional in that the republican values and institutions created during the American Revolution were not likely transferable to other countries lacking the political, demographic, and geographic advantages of the United States.  Unlike Jefferson, he cautioned subsequent American statesmen who sought to bring democratic principles to faraway places in Asia and the Middle East.  Adams concurred with Washington, and his decision to avoid a war with France in 1800 probably cost him a 2nd term.  John Qunicy Adams once put it, "America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy."

Ellis concludes (in this section, p 216):

These voices from the past speak from different contexts with distinctive political accents, but they constitute a chorus in sounding three clear notes.  First, the US has committed the predictable mistakes of a novice superpower most rooted in overconfidence bordering on arrogance; second, wars have become routinized because foreign policy has become militarized at the same time as the middle class has been immunized from military service; and third, the credal conviction that American values are transplantable to all regions of the world is highly suspect and likely to draw the US into nation-building projects beyond its will or capacity to complete.  If we ever have a sustained conversation about America's role in the world, in effect the conversation we did not have at the end of the Cold War, these three lessons learned over the last quarter century should be placed on the table at the start.

He adds later (p 221): "There are two Americas out there, one connected to the global economy, the older marooned in interior islands of joblessness, despair, and addiction.  There is no question which one owns the future."

Throughout his narrative, Ellis refers to the fate of Native Americans (whose welfare greatly concerned Washington, and for whom he tried, unsuccessfully, to create a separate nation, carved from parts of present day Georgia and Alabama) and slaves. He considers slavery the signature sin of the founding.  During the nation's founding, the moral effort to end slavery competed with the political effort to win independence from Great Britain, and both efforts required the cooperation of the slaveholding states.  Many of the founders owned slaves, and even they, for the most part, were for abolishing the practice, but they failed to enact laws preventing slavery, e.g., in new states to be admitted to the union - and the result would be a war that divided the nation.

"The range of  political creativity surrounding Washington, chiefly Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and Hamilton, has no serious competitor as a gallery of greats" (p 223) and, while the founders differed in many respects, they also respected the other's view and considered it in shaping their own understanding.  Ellis's book is dense with history and applications; no wonder it was among the 100 most important books of 2018 (NY Times).  I thank God for these wise founders who provided the insight and accepted the input of other wise men in setting up the principles and laws by which our country is/should be governed.

PS.  Ellis notes that, while the writing of the constitution was largely relegated to Madison and Alexander Hamilton, the editorial task was assigned to a representative from PA named Gouverneur Morris [one of my personal heroes!] who made revisions to the document over 4 days in September.   "The finish given to his style and arrangement of the Constitution fairly belongs to his pen," Madison later said, "and a better choice could not have been made, as the performance of the task proved."  During the convention, Morris rose to speak more than any other delegates and was one of the harshest critics of slavery as a cancer that must be removed before it spread.  If you ever wondered who coined the phrase "We the people of the United States..." look no farther than the tall-peg-legged, witty Morris.

December 27

Evening Class (1996)
By Maeve Binchy

As in many of her other books (The Lilac Bus, The Copper Beech), Maeve Binchy brings together a group of unhappy and unfulfilled individuals and the reader sees them transformed.  In this case, the catalyst is an Italian class offered at the local night school in a run-down Irish neighborhood.  Nora O'Donoghue, now middle-aged, has returned from Sicily to her native Ireland and takes on the role of Signora to her students, who include a forlorn Latin teacher, a failing student, a bank clerk, a hotel porter, among others.  Set in Dublin in the 1950s through 1990s, the story is based on some strong coincidences, but with such a happy ending that it was a joy to read.

Ireland, happy ending - what more can I ask?

December 25: Jesus is the Best Gift!

The baby Jesus grew up to be the Messiah, the Savior of the World.  John, the fourth gospel-writer, was not addressing a strictly Jewish audience as Matthew was.  His letter refers to Jesus as "the Word".


John 1: 1-18

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2 He was in the beginning with God.  3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  6 There was a man from God, whose name was John.  7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.  8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.  9 The true light, which enlightens everyone was coming into the world.  10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.  11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.  12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.  14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me'")  16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.  17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

* * * * *

My pastor, Scotty Neasbitt, cited this scripture in his message last Sunday, and made some important points:

John thus explains that Jesus is God and through him we have light and life.

This life is a gift - not something we earned.  What we earned through our behavior is death.  ("All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." [Romans 3:23]  The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. [Romans 6:23])

How do we unwrap this gift?  By believing in him!

December 24: The Birth of the Savior

After Matthew lists Jesus's ancestors, he tells the story of his birth:

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.  When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.  19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.  20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy spirit.  21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name, Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."  22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

23 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" *

(which means, God with us).  24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.  And he called his name Jesus.

*Isaiah 7:14

December 23: The Genealogy of the Savior

In the first book of the New Testament, the gospel-writer Matthew offers this genealogy of our Savior Jesus Christ

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.  2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father the Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the King.  And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the other of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. 12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

Normally, a list of generations is not all that exciting, but there are some pretty remarkable names here (italicized above).  First, the patriarchs:

• Abraham, 
• his son Isaac, 
• and his son Jacob.  
• Then Jacob's son Judah,
• then Judah's son Perez - whose mother was Tamar (the widow of Judah's older son) who persuaded Judah that she was a prostitute in an attempt to conceive a child
• Going down the line, Boaz is the son of Rahab, a prostitute (although a very helpful one, as it was Rahab who protected the Hebrew spies who came to Jericho).
• Boaz married Ruth, the Moabite woman who had married Naomi's son (Moabites were considered to be lower class, and certainly not Hebrews).  After Ruth's husband died, she chose to stay with her mother-in-law rather than return to her family home.  "Your people shall be my people, and your God my God."  And her God rewarded her kindness to Naomi. 
• Ruth thus became the great-grandmother of King David - and an ancestor of Jesus.

December 21

The Great Hurricane of '38 (2005)
By Cherie Burns

On this first day of winter, rain - not snow - is pouring down, and perhaps this is a good day to look back on the most destructive event to hit RI.  This fascinating history examines the times, the day of, and the aftermath of the Hurricane of '38, which changed life along the RI coast forever.

The sun is shining on a beautiful sunny late September day in 1938.  The Great Depression is finally over, but war clouds are gathering in Europe.  Without access to modern forecasting techniques, fishermen are gathered along the shore, a wedding is in progress, a Sunday School picnic is taking place at Napatree Point in Westerly.  With only the vaguest warnings, people are taken unaware as a hurricane rages up the coast at 60 mph and winds gust to over 180; waves surge over 20 feet.  Seaside homes and even hotels are swept off their foundations, trees are down, and coastlines are changed.  There is a huge loss of life.  Yet there are amazing survival stories, too.

* * * * *

Years ago, Rhode Islanders used to compare stories of Where were you when the hurricane hit?  One friend waited hours for her husband to make it home through downtown Providence, comforting her worried children [he made it]; another was in her day of classes at Pembroke College and remembered watching the water fill the streets of Providence, afraid it would climb up College Hill.  Most of those folks are gone today, and I appreciate Cherie Burns' interviews of those who survived.  Thankfully, we have accurate forecasting equipment today, but let's never underestimate nature's power.

December 20

A Christmas Memory (1956)

By Truman Capote

In Truman Capote's short memoir, he recalls an elderly, childlike cousin whom he calls "my friend", a woman who has never "eaten in a restaurant, traveled more than five miles from home, received or sent a telegram, read anything except funny papers and the Bible" but who  "killed with a hoe the biggest rattlesnake ever seen in this county (sixteen rattles)" and likes to "tell ghost stories...talk to herself, take walks in the rain..."

Set in the South during prohibition, "Buddy" and his friend are about to make their annual Christmas fruitcakes.  They gather windfall pecans in the woods, then buy spices, dried fruits and bootleg whiskey with money saved from selling hand-picked blackberries and jars of homemade jam.  It takes 4 days to make the 31 fruitcakes that will be mailed to special friends (not necessarily neighbors) like President Roosevelt and Rev and Mrs Lucey, Baptist missionaries to Borneo.

Later, they will cut down a tree, make decorations, and create gifts for one another.  This is a beautiful story, full of love and caring.  I read a version illustrated by Beth Peck; "my friend" was exactly as I'd pictured her.

December 17

The Light in the Forest (1953)

By Conrad Richter

This book was written for young adults, and I may have read it years ago, but the story is impactful for any audience.

This story is set in colonial times, when Fort Pitt was on the western frontier and white settlers were encroaching more and more on the native Americans' land.  As the story opens, a 15-year-old boy is being escorted from an Indian village to the home of Harry Butler, a prominent Pennsylvania settler.  The reader soon learns that "True Son" was kidnapped at a young age by Delaware Indians and that he and a handful of others are now being returned to their white families as part of a land treaty.  Brought up as an Indian, the young man has throughly accepted their way of life, forming his own distinct opinions against the whites, and considering himself a Delaware.  He loves the open land, the forests, the rivers, the animals and the birds.

True Son's white family is thrilled to have their son back, but find him ungrateful and unwilling to accept many of their ways, including their tight-fitting clothes, chores, and rules.  Various family members try different tactics to get him to behave light a "white boy", but he chafes against the restrictions.  Johnny's little brother Gordon is the only one to like him as he is, and Johnny and Gordy quickly develop a close bond.  After a few months among the whites, Johnny hears that an Indian has been seen in the community, and he sneaks out at night to see if he can find him.  Sure enough, it is Johnny's "cousin", Half Arrow, who has made the trip with Little Crane, to find Johnny and Little Crane's white squaw, also part of the exchange. But Little Crane has been killed by Johnny's uncle, and the two boys set out for vengeance.  Eventually, Johnny is forced to make a decision that could threaten the life of his brother Gordy.  Johnny's decision will dramatically affect his future, and the outcome is heartbreaking.

This story is so well written.  The author manages, in a very slim volume, to illustrate the clash of cultures, the overstepping of the white settlers, and the painful consequences when human beings are caught in the middle.

December 14

Left Bank: Art, Passion and the Rebirth of Paris, 1940-50 (2018)                  By Agnes Poirier

Today, as I write this post, Paris is under attack by anti-government protesters, unhappy with taxes, breaking windows, looting, setting fires.  Three years ago, just before I visited Paris, terrorists killed dozens of innocent victims in cafes, on the streets, and in a sports arena.  This beautiful city has seen its share of hard times, for sure - but the occupation of German troops during the World War 2 must surely have been one of the most difficult.  

Les Duex Magots today

I read only the first third of this book, the section entitled "War Was My Master" (July 1938-August 1945), which covers intellectual and artistic life in Paris just before, during ,and at the end of the war - but felt it provided a rich and atmospheric description of wartime Paris.  Many Americans, including Miles Davis, James Baldwin, and Sylvia Beach joined the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus and others, along with expatriots Pablo Picasso and Samuel Beckett.  It's hard to imagine a more talented group of people living, loving and creating in such a concentrated area.  The next two sections will chronicle hardships after the war, and how the war affects these artists' work.

Dewey at Eugene Delacroix residence, 6th arr.

Many lived or worked right along Rue Bonaparte, where Dewey and I spent several days this past October.  Luckily for us, Paris was peaceful, and we could enjoy the cities museums, restaurants, parks, and architecture.  We could only imagine the meetings at Les Duex Magots, the secret messages passed from one to another, the lives risked for the sake of freedom.

Rue Bonaparte (our hotel is at green, round sign)

December 12

The Chilbury Ladies' Choir (2017)
By Jennifer Ryan

This story begins with the funeral of Edmund Winthrop, the town of Chilbury's first casualty of World War II.  Edmund was a bully, and even his sisters don't seem overly upset, but their father is another story.  "The Brigadier" has lost his only son and heir, and thus faces the prospect of losing the family estate.  Fortunately, his wife is expecting a baby very soon; as long as she gives birth to a boy, all will be well.  Just to be on the safe side, the Brigadier corners the somewhat shady midwife Edwina Paltry at his son's collation.  Since several women in Chilbury are due to give birth at about the same time; Edwina agrees to guarantee a male heir.  Surely at least one of the babies will be a male - hopefully, the Winthrops'.  But if not, Edwina will just arrange a clandestine swap.

Set during the spring and summer of 1940, the town of Chilbury is well within the sights of Luftwaffe bombers.  The war affects the residents of this small town in many ways.  Lots of soldiers and naval officers are serving, leaving the choir without male voices.  The ladies decide to persevere, anyway, and they find camaraderie and support as they rehearse and perform together.  Told through letters and journal and diary entries, we meet the two Winthrop sisters, Venetia, 17, and Kitty, almost 14.  Venetia falls in love with a somewhat eccentric young artist whom she suspects of black marketeering and possibly spying for the enemy.  Kitty's life revolves mostly around the choir and she takes private lessons from Prim, its new leader.  Sylvie, a Czech Jewish refugee, is temporarily lodging with the Winthrops as well.  Mrs Margaret Tilling, a widowed nurse, is truly in the thick of the war.  Her only son, David, has just enlisted and she is stuck with doing her part for the war effort, resentfully billeting a soldier, Col Mallard, in David's room.  Mrs Tilling is often called upon to care for the wounded and also serves as a midwife; she is puzzled by the circumstances surrounding the birth of Rose Lovell, her neighbor's baby, and Lawrence Winthrop.

Reminiscent of the recent Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society, another epistolary novel set during the War, The Chilbury Ladies' Choir is peopled with likable characters who noticeably change and grow as their circumstances become more difficult.  While the southeast corner of England was not occupied as the Channel Islands were, it was still a dangerous place.  War can bring out the best and worst in people, and author Ryan has surely brought out some of the best in this wonderful novel.

Note: I read the audio version and found the narrations to be excellent, particularly Edwina Paltry

December 10

John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy (2003)
By Evan Thomas

One of the best biographies and most interesting stories I've read, not only is John Paul Jones an important character in terms of his drive, genius, and willingness to champion the cause of liberty - teamed with his character flaws - but his story is an open window into the birthing of the navy and the nation.

John Paul was a gardener's son, who grew up on the Scottish estate where his father was employed.  He resented being the gardener's son and was eager to move up in society, early thinking he would make his mark as a sailor.  He added "Jones" to his name and joined the Masons as a way to make connections (George Washington himself was a Mason).  He resented the fact that titled men received naval commissions based on their title and wealth and that all others had to work their way up the ranks.  As Jones worked his way up to commanding a ship, one of his first assignments was a slave ship, a job he later (and probably at the time) considered a blot on his record.  Despite his skills, however, he got into some trouble with disciplining a couple of crew members and often strafed against authority.

Jones had an older brother, William Paul, who had immigrated to the Virginia colony, and John made frequent trips there.  He wanted to help the colonists' cause and volunteered with the Continental Navy, eventually given command of a couple of ships, including the USS Providence, and later and more famously, the Bonhomme Richard, the ship that he captained to great victory over much larger English vessels.

Unlike most ship captains, he wanted to work for the good of the colonies - not for personal gain.  Typically, American privateers entered the war to attack other ships and take "prizes" (the cargo and goods from the other ship).  Jones's first allegiance was to the colonies.  After the war, however, he found himself unemployed, and sought service as an admiral in the Russian navy.  He died in Paris in 1792, and was buried there.  Much later, he was officially recognized as the father of the American navy; his body was exhumed and reinterred at the US Naval Academy in 1905.  Finally, Jones received the credit and attention he sought all through his life.

December 9

White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to be White (2017)
By Daniel Hill

Pastor Daniel Hill wanted to see his urban church become more racially diverse, and met with a group of pastors involved in the ministry of racial reconciliation.  After Daniel shared his vision, a Latino pastor admired his enthusiasm, but admitted "much of what you say sounds paternalistic.  Why do you think rich white people need to come save us poor brown people?" (p 15).  This remark was an eye-opener to Hill (to me, too!) and motivated him to study what it means to be white, and how "white privilege" informs how we treat others and how it makes others feel.  Hill maintains that reconciliation can happen only after we [whites] recognize our sins of white supremacy, lament the sin, repent, and then take steps to help - whether to listen, advocate, or engage.  He emphasizes that self-righteousness (that anything I do can redeem myself) will not suffice; our righteousness comes from Christ alone.  It is not "Christ in me" (5x in Bible) so much that it is I "in Christ" (<150x in Bible).  This book is a wake-up call to white Christians.

December 8

Varina (2018)
By Charles Frazier

As this biographical novel opens, Varina Howell Davis is the widow of the confederate president and she meets up with an old friend in Saratoga, NY.  The year is 1906, and she reminisces about her life, especially the weeks-long wagon trip after the war when she and her children escape the southern capitol of Richmond, bound for Havana.  After coping with outlaws, hunger, weather, and fear, they make it as far as Florida, where Jefferson Davis (now considered a treasonous criminal) meets up with them, and all are captured.  After a time under house arrest, "V" is released and she travels, first to Europe, then along the eastern seaboard, eventually ending up in New York, and it is here that she meets up with "Jimmy Limber", a little mixed-race boy whom she took in, and who was removed from her at the time of her capture in 1865.  It is through the vehicle of recollecting her memories to Jimmy, now James Blake, a teacher and recent widower, that her story unfolds.  Varina grew up as the daughter of a struggling planter, well-educated but with no prospects when she met the much older Jeff, still grieving for the young wife he'd lost ten years earlier, after only a few months of marriage.  V's life is tragic, not only because a horrible war in which her husband played a prominent role, but also because of the loss of all but one of her six children (all died young from illness or accident).  She copes, with the help of opium and alcohol, and manages to complete and publish her husband's memoirs, but her life is sad.  Thus, she is happy to meet up with James, who had been like a son to her, and recall their shared adventure of near-escape.

Although the story left some loose ends (who was the young blond woman whom V looked after at the hotel in Saratoga?), it was both informative and interesting.  One doesn't always hear "the rest of the story" of the losing side.  Today, there's evidence that the Confederacy still lives in many peoples' hearts, 150 years after the war (witness the riots around the removal of Jefferson Davis monuments and Confederate flags).  Let us pray that our country can resolve its current differences.

December 6

The Color Purple (1982)
By Alice Walker

This epistolary novel, set in the American south of the 1920s-40s, is told primarily through the words of Celie, a poor black woman who suffers abuse initially at the hands of her stepfather, by whom she bears two children, and later by her husband, a widower who seems to see Celie as a stepmother for his six children and a maid. We learn of Celie's lot through letters she writes to God.  Though she is not happy, her letters are uncomplaining.  But she is pleased when her husband takes a lover, Shug Avery, who is kind to Celie and helps her find strength and learn to love.

Early in the story, Celie is separated from her beloved sister Nettie, who goes off to Liberia as a missionary.  Nettie writes to Celie, but Celie's husband Albert (whom she refers to as Mr ______) has hidden the letters.  When Shug finds the letters, Celie is furious with Mr _____ but delighted that her sister is alive.  Nettie's life is centered on teaching and helping to care for the children of the missionary family with whom she lives.  Nettie writes of great changes in the Olinkas' way of life, reminiscent of the Africans in Achebe's Things Fall Apart.

Meanwhile, changes are ever so slowly coming to the south as seen in the treatment of Sofia, the wife of Celie's stepson Harpo.  Sofia is jailed when she and the town's white mayor have an argument; Sofia ends up working as a maid to the family, and eventually decides to quit.  In a scene near the story's end, Sofia shares her true feelings with the family's daughter who brings her baby son to show off to Sofia.

Celie's voice feels authentic and her story pulls the reader in.  Alice Walker says she was influenced by the writer Zora Neale Hurston, who wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God.

December 4

The Knitting Circle (2007)
By Ann Hood

Local writer Hood writes a story based on her own experience of losing a young child.  Protagonist Mary Baxter is grieving over the lost of her 5-year-old daughter to meningitis.  As she struggles to make peace with her loss, her distant mother suggests she take up knitting.  Reluctantly, Mary steps inside "Big Alice's Sit and Knit", where she is welcomed by a group of knitters who teach her stitches, and share their own stories of grief and loss, including a rape victim, a cancer patient, a woman who lost friends during 9/11, among many others.  While she will always ache for her daughter, her friends help her go on with her life, returning to her part-time job, repairing a difficult relationship.

The knitters' caring support is not unlike my own Quilting Plus group and the many references to places in Providence, and even in Barrington, make it feel personal.