Amelia’s Adventures in the Kitchen

Wednesday visitors to the shop will have made the acquaintance of artist and staffer Amelia Garretson-Persans whose handmade fine art books are unique features of our collection.  Ever industrious and creative, Amelia took home a copy of Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking by Brother Curry.  Just a few days later she shared some of her experiences.  Baking is only one of Amelia’s many talents.  Contact the shop to order copies of the book.

3/2/09 Challah

Though challah is traditionally a Jewish bread, Brother Rick Curry justifies its presence in his Christian cookbook by explaining that Father Toby Myer, who I have to thank for this recipe, is a Jewish convert.  With that contentious issue settled, I will proceed.

Challah is the first type of bread I ever made, even before I was initiated into the mystic rites of Jesuit breadmaking.  If it turns out it is a terrific crowd-pleaser and a tremendous ego-booster.  With its egg wash and sesame/poppy seed coating it emerges from the oven triumphantly.

When a bread doesn’t turn out, as was the case with my second and third attempts, it can easily be misconstrued as a personal insult to your character and integrity.  This is perhaps the wrong way to approach baking, but when you are confronted with a squat, dead, little loaf after four h ours of labor and anticipation, it can be devastating.

Incredibly though, this tends to happen less and less with the more practice and research you do.  Brother Rick Curry clued me into the problem of starting your yeast in a cold bowl.  As I have been doing most of my baking this winter in a poorly winterized summer bungalow, I took his advice to heart and began heating my ceramic bowl in hot water before beginning.  So far, no more flops…

This challah turned out quite well, despite my persistently spazzy braiding.  I needed a diagram for the first four or five challahs I made, and when I finally decided to lose this crutch, I ended up with a wonky looking bread.  It tasted good, but while it lasted, it functioned as a reminder of my poor visual memory.  Fortunately, good challah only lasts about a day and half.

3/19/09 Brother Andrew’s Pumpernickel Bread

This bread has some weird stuff in it!  I always thought pumpernickel bread was made with pumpernickel flour, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.  I’ve always had a nebulous idea of what pumpernickel was to begin with, and frankly I still do.

The real wild cards in this bread are the one and half tablespoons of cocoa powder and two tablespoons of instant coffee granules, which I ordinarily wouldn’t allow in my home, if not for its hidden location in the back of the baking shelf.

The bread is cooked at a high temperature, mostly for the function of darkening the crust I think.  The result is a sweet, smoky flavor, much akin to store-bought pumpernickel bread…  It makes excellent toast, particularly the type of toast that accompanies a bowl of soup.

3/29/09 Sister Courtney’s Buttermilk Bread

While skimming through my Jesuit Breadmaking book, in a desperate attempt to use up the quickly turning buttermilk, I discover that Brother Rick Curry only has one arm!  Perhaps because I’m not wild about book covers that feature the author in all his or her smiling splendor, I never looked very carefully at it.  In the introduction Brother Curry describes the difficult task of cutting the fifty pound bricks of butter received at the monastery into useable chunks.  He makes  a fleeting remark about how much more difficult this is with only one arm.  No kidding!  I quickly flip back to the cover and am very surprised to see that though his right shoulder is obscured in shadow, there is clearly no arm attached to it.   And I thought kneading was a workout with two arms!

Anyway, Sister Courtney’s bread is a pretty simple bread to make, with virtually no curveballs thrown in.  It makes a sweet, slightly moist loaf, which makes excellent breakfast toast, particularly when it’s smothered in butter and honey.

Calla Lily

The huge calla lily plant in our front window is again and remarkably in bloom. It’s Valentine’s Day which is sweet, but it’s also the dead middle of cold February. The shop window’s climate is one of extremes: intensely strong morning sun, still thin this time of year, then longer unheated drafty nights. A beautiful yet poisonous plant native to southern Africa, the one Diego Rivera painted in his Flower Vendor, the calla lily thrives, surprisingly, here on the eastern end of Long Island. The plant was a gift to us four years ago in celebration of our anniversary mid-March given on the first day of spring in full bloom. Perhaps this recent inflorescence proves what Katherine Hepburn uttered in Stage Door (1937): the calla lily is in bloom again; such a strange flower. She carried it on her wedding day and she’ll lay here to remember the dead. The flower of love and death, then. A heavy note for the day, yet the lily’s rich white throat glows like a small moon. We love the ones we’re with, and remember the loves we’ve lost. Our reading tonight at which poet couples read some of their favorite love poems celebrated love’s many facets, its triumphs and challenges. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Luminous landscapes of Richard Mayhew

We arrived at the college (Stonybrook Southampton) just in time to hear 85-year-old artist Richard Mayhew offer some remarks about his deeply colored, deeply felt and richly imagined landscape paintings. More than a dozen large pictures glowed from the gallery while he spoke. Rich apricot, purples and passionate reds fill the squares of the frames. Paint is handled with great subtly and sensitivity, a “spiritual sensitivity,” Mayhew would say. He paints “from the gut.” Painting is a “spiritual commitment,” Mayhew explained. “It’s a way of being involved with the creative function of life.” Mr. Mayhew grew up in Amityville, studied art in New York and in Europe and now lives in California. Part of me is always here, he said of the Island he calls home. Lance Gumbs of the Shinnecock Nation presented Mr. Mayhew with a ceremonial pendant made of precious metals and wampum. Mayhew is of African American and Native American ancestry. He credits his grandmother with encouraging his artistic gifts. And these gifts are prodigious. The exhibition is on view in the Avram Gallery through March 21. Don’t miss it!

Jazz session inaugurates New Year

They’ve been playing together for 30 yes, hard to believe, 30 years now. When they played together once again, this time at Canio’s Books the first Saturday in the new age of Obama, DePetris and Shaughnessy sizzled. They played a seamless set of Ellington standards, one with a samba arrangement; Sonny Rollins riffs, the beautiful St. Thomas had us all basking in the Islands; and some of DePetris’s own exquisitely wrought compositions. With so few places left to hear good jazz outside NYC, we are fortunate to have these masterful musicians right here in the ‘hood. Another packed house warmed up the room on a very cold night. Deep bass notes and the sweet voice of the guitar curled around the bookshelves, a command performance of American improvisation. Don’t miss our next set with Steve Shaughnessy on bass and Tom DePetris on guitar. Read the great review at Hamptons.com “Jazz Musicians Steve Shaughnessy And Tom DePetris Play To Packed House At Canio’s Books” by Colin M. Graham.

Spirit of Thomas Merton

The shop was packed from corner to corner with those eager to hear Eda Lorello, pastoral counselor speak about the life and legacy of Thomas Merton. The monk, poet and peace activist is  arguably one of the most influential spiritual masters of the 20th century.  Then it should come as no surprise that the house was full to commemorate Thomas Merton’s death, 40 years ago, December 10, 1968.  But what does it say that now,  in 2008 in the secular and some would say wayward Hamptons  such a crowd gathers on a cold winter night to hear his words? Eda spoke about her life-long study of Merton’s work and of her pilgrimage to the Abbey of Gethsemane where Merton lived for 27 years. His spirit moved her first on the page and decades later at the hermitage.  And it goes on.

We were fortunate, thanks to Tony Ernst, to have been able to record this presentation which will air later on WPKN independent and non-commercial radio.  Several of our programs can be heard on-line at this link: http://eastendink.blogspot.com

During this holiday time, let’s keep our ears open!

Audacious Hope!

A truly transcendent moment in American history…a President-elect who reads history, who learns from history; who makes history! President-elect Barack Obama will not only be bringing cases of good books to the White House come January, he’ll be uniting our country and our world, we hope, in a new spirit of community-building and cooperation. Jon Meacham’s essay in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, 2 November 2008, listed some of Mr. Obama’s most treasured reads: “The Federalist, Jefferson, Emerson, Lincoln, Twain” were first among them. His list continues: “W.E.B. Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folk, Dr. King’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon.   Take the Barack test.  How many of these have you read? And how about the following? Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, and The Quiet American, Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook and Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward as well as Gandhi’s autogiography.  Factor in Nietzsche, Niebuhr and Tillich plus John Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle, Robert Caro’s Power Broker,  Studs Terkel’s Working, and Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiments. How did you fare?  Most of us have a little catching up to do!

More importantly, we are grateful the country has elected a president of such learning, intellect, and grace. We’ve been wandering in the desert too long!  Think of what new reading groups may form around these titles, how many new voters could also be turned on to some new reading inspired by President Obama.  We welcome the return of literacy and decency to the country.   Mr. Obama is a bookseller’s president! His own  two books: Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope have earned much acclaim. We hope the country will keep on voting, continue reading and will fully realize the transformative power of this extraordinary moment in history.

Italian and Irish: from Dante Alighieri to Yeats and beyond

Whether you consider their poets, novelists, playwrights, or storytellers, there is much to appreciate in the rich literary traditions of these two great civilizations. Moving beyond the American stereotypes of both cultures, we are each proud to claim ancestors from Italy and from Ireland.  And we’re particularly pleased to recommend  our collections of Irish and Italian literature.  Worlds of great reading await…reading that will take you far beyond sentimental journeys repairing ancient farmhouses in Tuscany, or finding the perfect beer in the 26 counties. We continue to develop each collection and ensure the great masters are well represented. Sure, we have Pirandello and Sean O’Casey on the shelves; di Lampedusa and James Joyce; Eugenio Montale and Patrick Kavanaugh; but browsers will also enjoy discovering some new voices as well. Consider novelist Francesca Marciano, author of End of Manners and Dermot Bolger author of The Journey Home for examples of contemporary voices.  We’ve also got travel literature and history, language books, both new and used, and upcoming book events of related interest.

Lily Tuck will read from her new biography Woman of Rome: a life of Elsa Morante on Saturday, November 8.  And we hope to have Frank Delaney again at Canio’s Books in spring once his next historical novel, Shannon appears.  Meanwhile, you’ll want to read his two previous works: Ireland and Tipperary.  Mr. Delaney entranced our audience recently when he read from a non-fiction work Simple Courage: a True Story of Peril on the Sea about the trajedy of the SS Free Enterprise that hit a fierce storm on its journey from Europe to America in late December 1951.

Melville Lives!

We like to imagine Herman Melville walking down Main Street, Sag Harbor. He’s just climbed off a whale ship, steadying his land legs along Long Wharf and he’s looking for a suitable watering hole. He might find his way into Murf’s Tavern for a pint. Maybe he’d try his hand at the pirate ring toss. While we can’t say for sure “Melville slept here,” we know Sag Harbor’s rowdy reputation somehow reached Melville’s writing desk in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. See chapters 12 & 13 of Moby Dick. Long famous for having hosted marathon readings of that great American novel, Canio’s Books recently hosted a mini-marathon. On the occasion of Melville’s 189th birthday (August 1, although we were about a week late), we invited local Melville enthusiast and green architect Bill Chaleff to read selections from the master’s works. We heard selections from “Billy Budd,”  “Benito Cereno,” and from “Bartleby.” Despite the August heat, Bill kept his thick beard in place, a true sacrifice for the sake of literature. Sag Harbor’s performing plumber Terry Sullivan led us in a round of sea chanteys. (Terry’s new folk CD Hold On has just been released. ) Next year’s celebration, the 190th, promises to be even bigger. Whale ho!

Begley on Kafka: The Art is in the Work

“Read Kafka without trying to find ‘meaning’,” said novelist Louis Begley to the packed house at Canio’s Books, Saturday night, July 26. “There is no ‘lesson’ to be drawn,” he continued. “The ‘lesson’ is they [Kafka's stories] work on your heart and mind….” Begley said, quoting the master himself, “‘like an ax to break the frozen ice within us.’” Louis Begley’s new non -fiction work The Tremendous World I Have Inside My Head: Franz Kafka: A Biographical Essay was the subject of his talk.

His most recent novel, now out in paperback is Matters of Honor about young Harvard law school students in the 1950s. Begley’s previous works include About Schmidt, which was made into a film, Mistler’s Exit and Wartime Lies among others.

Begley described a particular and immediate understanding of Kafka. Fom the first sentence of “The Trial,” he felt Kafka was writing directly to him. Begley and his mother experienced the oppressive intimacy of family pensions, the places Kafka writers about, first hand. Begley soon became devoted to Kafka. He finally agreed to write about the master after publisher James Atlas had asked him for years for such a work. The task was daunting, Begley admitted, since there has been so much written about Kafka. Yet he feels a lot of what has been written is wrong-headed in its approach. Because so much of Kafka’s private papers are available to the public, it is hard to resist delving into the details of those letters and diaries never intended for publication for “clues.”

But the meaning of Kafka’s work will not be found there, Begley insists. Kafka was not a conceptual thinker, he explained. He worked in images and waves of feeling. HIs novels are more open-ended than neatly resolved. The writing is exceedingly direct. Sure it is important to know about the context in which a writer writes, and that can be enriching, but it is not essential for an understanding of the work. To know and appreciate Kafka, one must simply and directly read him. “The tremendous world I have inside my head, but how to free myself and free it without being torn to pieces,” Kafka writes in Amerika. Begley may have given us a way. Signed copies of works by Louis Begley are available at Canio’s Books.

Through the big blue door

We’ve been visited by old-timers who remember the place that in the late ’30s sold penny candy and sodas at the corner of Glover and Main where our bookshop has made its home since 1980. We’ve heard from others about the back room where teenagers came to watch t.v. in the ’50s and maybe drink some beer. Some variety of religious thrift shop sold old clothes and odds and ends here. Then Canio Pavone transformed the space into the literary gathering place and the eclectic shop Canio’s Books is today. We’ve heard rumors the huge basement was once a speak-easy during Prohibition, but then, it’s likely most any large underground rooms served a similar purpose in this port town. Access to Sag Harbor Cove through the trees out back may even have provided a clandestine route to transport the rum. In the mid to late 1850s, the building was once owned by a certain Reverend William Musgrave, minister at Christ Episcopal Church in Sag Harbor village. And the wide floorboards in back are said to be part of the original structure which dates from the late 1790s. We have yet to hear from any ghosts. But the voices of so many writers, poets, novelists and playwrights who have read at the shop have now seeped into the walls that the stories they could tell would likely continue for a long long while.