Amazing Grace
Four snowflakes with their differentiated six points are on the cover of the novel About Grace by Anthony Doerr. I found it today at the newly advertised Mt. Vernon used bookstore, not really too far away from the village.
My first swim, also today, in the warm waters of Great Pond made me pause and reread on page 47: “Water was a wild, capricious substance: nothing solid, nothing permanent, nothing as it appeared.” Today it was a 75° sunny heaven of a day and the water felt like 75° too!
Published in 2004, most of the novel is about Grace, named after Grace Creek, Alaska, a body of water only visited once.
The main character is a lover of snowflakes and snow and quite the scientist, full of pages and pages of crystal water info along with strange abilities to see the future.
Perhaps quite cooling during a hot summer? The author Doerr reached me deeply in All the Light We Cannot See, a war story involving a blind girl. When she opened that mysterious can of peaches, I simply had to go out and buy some of those delectable sweet fruits, even though canned. Had any sweet fresh peaches this summer?
Black raspberries and sweet sweet cherry tomatoes came my way the other day from Farmington friend Susan McPherran, who used to manage Spring Gallery sculpture garden on Main Street in Belgrade Lakes village. We were planning to swim in Great Pond, but the wind and choppy waves kept us wading that hot morning. Waters are ruled by weather.
In this novel as well, Doerr is reaching into light and darkness and touching me deeply page by page. How does his writing almost hypnotize me, and then I swim in Great Pond’s gentle waters today and feel “other worldly.”
Did I mention that Summertime in the Belgrades ad took me to this new, yet old business and I met my neighbor on Great Pond there by coincidence? He thankfully drove ahead of me back towards home because my route there was way around robin-hoods barn.
Isn’t it quite the treat to find helpful librarians at the Mt. Vernon Public Library and a young assistant actually programmed my rental car so that I heard the ins and outs of hilly roads from “the voice” as I drove, enjoying the sunny road to Don Hamilton’s used bookstore stocked from floor to ceiling. He told me Google has a tour online.
Freedom to enjoy the lake, a new book shop to find and a delightful Doerr novel makes summertime in Maine pure magic. Hoping you, too, are experiencing some of reading’s magic and lakeside views of clouds reflected in waters ever so serene on special summer days. Aren’t we the lucky ducks? I even heard my first loon call today.
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