Lucky Solstice

You could say the luck began back around Thanksgiving time. Mark Doty had been announced the winner of the National Book Award for his poetry collection Fire to Fire. We’d already scheduled a reading from his memoir Dog Years. How fortuitous now that our audience could congratulate him on this great honor. When the poet read from his memoir, he read each word with the breath and sound of poetry.   Just now an old golden lab and a young man are walking through the light snowfall on upper Main Street, Sag Harbor.  A sign of Beau, perhaps? or just another daily ritual of caring this dark afternoon?  Mark spent time with each question from the audience, answered each generously, encouragingly, the poet teacher sharing his gifts. Here, he seemed to say, you try…

Some weeks later, storyteller and novelist Gioia Timpanelli lit the candles for Santa Lucia on her feast day, December 13.  The patron saint of Siracusa offered her eyes to the world. “Here,” she might have said, “take them, and see.”  Gioia’s new novel What Makes a Child Lucky takes place in Sicily, in a time of great hunger, or as the introduction suggests: “anyplace at anytime.”  Gioia spun out the story as we sat rapt in its charms.  Lucky us, we were able to make an audio recording thanks again to Tony Ernst at WPKN independent radio.  Check the link for this and other special programs: http://eastendink.blogspot.com

Books bring light to our lives. .. Bright Solstice to all!

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.

New Friend from Far Away

She entered the crowded bookshop carrying a huge plant, lavender chrysanthemums, a gift, joyful. Several in the audience had been in her workshops over the years.  Others were meeting Natalie Goldberg for the first time. She greeted everyone warmly.  Natalie had traveled a long way, from Santa Fe to the East coast.  Her visit would ultimately bring her to Lenox, Massachusetts to give a workshop, but this night she was on home ground, Long Island.  She read from Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America, one of her memoirs.  The scene she chose was her high school English class in Farmingdale. Her teacher, the poet Vince Clemente had turned the lights out so students could listen to the rain, in the quiet, in the darkened room.  For the young Natalie, struggling in soulless suburbia, this moment, this gesture, this teacher “saved her life.”  For those of us in the audience lucky enough to know Vince and his generous ways sharing his love of poetry, always crediting the masters, Natalie’s tribute  was especially moving.  The whole evening’s presentation was magical.

After reading from her poetry collection, Top of My Lungs, Goldberg continued with selections from her new work, Old Friend From Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir. She was generous answering questions from those who sat in rapt attention, and when she finished, no one moved.  We’ve had a lot of readings over the years at Canio’s Books, but we’ve never seen this response. No one wanted to leave. We all just sat, perfectly comfortable in the cramped space, transfixed.  No one knows how many books, poems, works of art Natalie Goldberg may have inspired, but this night, we’re certain she inspired a whole lot more.  If you missed this memorable event, we have a few souvenirs: signed copies of Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within; Long Quiet Highway,  Top of My Lungs; and Old Friend From Far Away.  What great gifts these would make to an aspiring writer, or for one writing who needs new inspiration.  What a great gift Natalie gave us this night: a new friend from far away.

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.

Poetry Prevails Against a Storm

Dire forecasts of a tropical storm, maybe even a hurricane striking our area were not enough to dissuade poet Molly Peacock.  In the face of ominous predictions, (some could say they were a bit overblown) Molly traveled the length of Long Island to meet her devoted audience and read her poems as planned.  She’s from Buffalo, she said, and lives in Canada where you learn to endure bad storms. Similarly undaunted,  local poetry fans filled the house despite the bad weather. So what if the sky opened up and let loose a torrential downpour?  At least we’re hearing good poetry.  Molly presented a generous reading  from her new collection Second Blush while the rain lashed against our windows and flooded local streets.  Author of a number of non-fiction works including How to Read a Poem and Start a Poetry Circle, and a memoir, Paradise, Piece by Piece, Molly Peacock is editor of The Private I: Privacy in a Public World.  She also has an essay included in the Best American Essays of 2007.  She’s now at work on a biography of the 18th century collage artist Mrs. Delaney. Molly described her subject as an example of how one’s entire life is a creative act.  Canio’s Books has available a limited number of signed copies of Second Blush .

The legacy of a book

A personal library is something like a fingerprint, unique, idiosyncratic, revealing. One’s book collection developed over decades is like a mosaic of that life, the patient creation of a reader’s quest for truth, beauty, knowledge. When that reader dies, the books may wait untended, unread. Eventually, a lucky few may find their way into new homes, into eager hands, fitting into new libraries one by one. A young man wandered into the shop one afternoon in search of just the right book for his mother. Something in history, something about New York. He found a thick volume about life among the New York intelligentsia at the turn of the century, just what his mother was interested in. That book along with boxes of others had recently been acquired from the estate of a distinguished biographer and professor of history at Columbia University. The professor’s son had hoped his father’s books might find their way to other interested readers. Several days later a woman called the shop so appreciative of the book her son had brought her. A historian herself, she was eager to learn about that book’s former owner. She’d planned to insert a provenance card into the volume acknowledging the previous owner, thereby preserving a tradition, continuing a legacy. We couldn’t imagine a better home for such a book.

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.