In the Company of Books

Tonight I had the pleasure of the company of books and the people who write them and read them at Eastern Connecticut's kick-off for One Book One Region. This phenomenon started five years ago when Steve Slosberg challenged the folks who read his column in The Day to come up with a One Book community read like they were doing in Rhode Island (and in Chicago and Seattle.) Betty Anne Reiter and I invited people to a meeting at Groton PL to see if anyone else besides the two of us and Steve was interested in the idea. People actually showed up to the meeting, (but not as many as the hundred who showed up tonight!). We chose Pete Hamill's almost-out-of-stock Snow in August and then emailed him to see when he could come out to Eastern Connecticut to accept this honor in person. Pete said he'd be delighted. Little Brown reprinted enough copies so Jim Landherr could buy 2400 of them for all the students and faculty of Norwich Free Academy. Tara Samul got students at Mitchell College to make buttons. Betty Anne and I visited Alice Fitzpatrick at the Community Foundation who gave us a grant. The Day printed bookmarks. The Norwich Inn and the Lighthouse Inn gave us free meals for Pete and the committee. The now defunct Boats, Books and Brushes PR people designed a logo, and Bank Square Books in Mystic promoted it with a reception and book signing (as they did again tonight!) and donated 20% of the sales of Snow in August to Literacy Volunteers.

We did it! A bunch of locals who had never done such a thing before got a lot of people reading and talking about a novel. Snow in August covers a lot of ground (and caused a lot of controversy which generated a lot of anguish, but also free publicity) but it is in essence a story of the Holocaust, as are two of the three books chosen this year. (How did we end up with three books for our One Book One Region community read? Let's just admit that you can't please all of the people all of the time.)

Tonight I had the pleasure of meeting Paul Zelinsky, illustrator of the Caldecott Honor Book, Hansel and Gretel, Jane Yolen, author of Briar Rose and 289 other books, and the wonderful Louise Murphy who wrote The True Story of Hansel and Gretel and who traveled all the way from Berkeley to talk about it. When it was Louise's turn to speak, she said something both moving and unexpected. She began describing her miserable journey across country, sustained from early morning only by Southwest's salty snacks. She said, however, that when she got to Mystic she was lifted out of her depressive state, not only by the beauty of the place, but by who we are and what we are doing. She said that she noticed that people here enjoy the trappings of affluence and the comforts of living in a traditional New England community. "So why aren't you reading the DaVinci Code or doing a Jane Austen Summer?" she asked. "You could be serving lemonade and having the children dress in period costume, and make it easy for yourselves. Instead, you are reading about something difficult. You're reading books about the Holocaust." Louise went on to say that she was encouraged by the slow but steadily increasing sales of The True Story of Hansel and Gretel because maybe it means that Americans are coming to grips with the serious situation we are in with the war in Iraq and the violence and tragedy in other parts of the world.

Both Hansel and Gretel and Briar Rose are dark tales. They strike at our deepest human fear, that of abandonment, and also at our highest joy, the embrace of a loving family. Ever-present is the forest primeval that grows around Briar Rose and threatens to smother her until she is rescued by a prince, and in which Hansel and Gretel are first abandoned and then ultimately saved. In the hands of these gifted 2006 One Book One Region authors, the power of both the forest and of family love and the evil of abandonment is unforgettable, as is the pleasure of their company.