Books by Belgrade’s Boylan
How good to recently find Cleavage and also a Jodi Picoult creation co-written with Jennifer Finney Boylan published several years ago.
I keep thinking of the New York Times book review of Cleavage that I strongly disagree with. The reviewer mentioned that this new memoir was just as terrific as her first one She’s Not There. What about Boylan’s other terrific memoirs??? I kept thinking. Every single book Boylan has written about her life has been well received and I personally recommend every single one.
Cleavage deals with the mature woman who worries about weight and size 14 dresses. Ho, hum, not again. Jenny Boylan, of course, makes it funny and true, down to the many pizza recipes she indulges in for family get togethers at the lake here in Belgrade.
Hiking up the Mountain Trail is memorable in her words with her life-long loving partner. Boylan’s two children are also cradled within Cleavage too, as is the family dog, can’t forget the family bound pet. A very very funny happening at their wedding years and years ago is shared. Read it to find out! Often another incident is repeated throughout this revealing life story:
“At the end of the day she stands by the lake and watched the sun turn the trees on the opposite bank to gold. So deeply does she love that glow that our friends, observing the rays of a setting sun touch the pines, call that ‘the Deedie light’.” Friendships and family grow through many changes in the Boylan family by the lake, and sunsets continue their constant evening glow.
She’s Not There was a stirring read for anyone. Colby College support throughout the English professor’s career was remarkable, and Richard Russo offered very sensitive commentary about his friendship through many years.
Stuck in the Middle is amazing family changes for all four of the Boylans, mother and father and two sons. Fun at the lake continues for the entire family during tumultuous growth and love of each other.
I’m Looking Through You was especially helpful to me when I read it years ago. This memoir deals with brother and sister issues and then later in the memoir sister and sister issues.
Good Boy was a fun book to read and review for Summertime. Who doesn’t have memories of pets in their own family life? Boylan traces life around the lake with seven dogs, actually more than seven. She returns to her childhood and recalls pets then as well.
Friends have told me they could tell their family stories through pets just as Boylan did in Good Boy. My family pet stories would involve two dogs and three cats, vivid memories of different stages of life as our family grew.
Now Cleavage is her newest bestseller and I found the cover funny just like her stories within. Not all light reading about the life of a mature woman of weight gain and dress sizes going up and up.
Many of you dear readers are Jodi Picoult followers, so maybe you read her joint effort with Jenny Boylan entitled Mad Honey. This popular novelist does her research and there’s a lot about honeybees and delicious golden honey. I kept thinking of my favorite honeybee novel, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.
Any of Kidd’s books are a feast and page turners, especially her historic fiction novels. Kidd’s later in life writings touch my heart, especially firstlight: makes me think of Maine sunrises and not South Carolina sunrises…
Oh, back to Boylan: read any of her memoirs and find memories around our beautiful Belgrade Lakes in all of them. As our families grow and change, we can still enjoy moments of peace and beauty here by our favorite blue water surrounded by pine scented woods and bowing beeches and drooping hemlocks. “The Deedie light” happens many evenings around the Belgrade Lakes as the sun spreads its glorious evening colors for all to view…Thank you Jenny Boylan for reminding us.
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