The Guest Book, by Sarah Blake

The Guest Book, by Sarah Blake (2019)

The Miltons were an old WASP family to whom the word “summer” was a verb.  One summer afternoon in 1936, while sailing in Penobscot Bay, Ogden Milton and his wife Kitty decided on a whim to buy Crockett’s Island.  This Island became the family’s rock and anchor for the next several decades.  The novel follows three generations of Ogden women, and the story goes back and forth between Kitty the matriarch, her daughter Joan, and granddaughter Evie.

A year earlier, the Milton’s had lost their 5-year old son when he fell from a window.  Thus, when Elsa, a German Jew who was an acquaintance of Ogden’s, asked Kitty if she would take care of her young son to protect him from the War, Kitty declined.

The Milton’s were known for hosting elaborate parties on their summer island, but the guest were all old money.  The next generation began mixing with people who were NOKD (not our kind, dear).

Ogden was head of a family investment firm and all his employees were of moneyed families.  When he hired Len Levy, a Jew, everyone was wary of him and the stereotypes of Jews and money was not far from their minds.  Len was assigned a somewhat menial task of reviewing documents.  In the process, he uncovered the firm’s investment with Nazis.

The surviving Milton son, Moss, was expected to join the firm and take over from his father.  Moss, however, was artistic and wasn’t interested in his family’s firm.  He befriended Reg Pauling, an African-American writer.  On a whim, he off-handedly invited both Reg and Len to his family’s island.  When they decided to take him up on the offer, the Milton’s were caught off guard.

Kitty spent the rest of her life trying to atone for the decisions she made in her life.

I felt this book tried to take on too much by mixing race and religious stereotypes into this novel.

It was a fast read.

Read:  August 7, 2020

3 Stars

 

Oreo, by Fran Ross (1974)

 

What’s not to love about a novel that, within its first few pages contains the following: 

 

"There is no weather per se in this book.  …  Assume whatever season you like throughout.  Summer makes the most sense …  That way pages do not have to be used up describing people taking off and putting on overcoats."

 

This novel is a very funny novel about relations between African-Americans and Jews.  Fran Ross (1935 ~ 1985) was the daughter of a Jewish father and an African-American mother.  She had also been a comedy writer for Richard Pryor, hence, her humor in this book.

 

The heroine of the novel is also the daughter of a Jewish father and Black mother.  Although her given name was Christine Clark, she was known by family and friends as Oreo.  Ostensibly, it was because her grandmother called her Oriole after the bird.  But, of course, this is a nod to the fact that the name is also a racial slur.

 

Her parent’s marriage causes concern on both sides of the family.  Oreo is raised by her maternal grandmother after her father deserts the family, but not before he leaves his legacy of Yiddish words and phrases, and her mother travels with a theater troupe.

 

When she reaches of age, Oreo sets off for New York City to find her father and his new family.  This book is hard to describe, as it is written in such a humorous manner, complete with graphs, tables and mathematical equations.  It addresses heavy issues on race relations and is quite relevant in todays atmosphere.

 

Read:  August 3, 2020

 

5 Stars