It was twenty years ago that “Midwives” was published: 1997. Seinfeld was still on the air. The Spice Girls had two of the year’s biggest hits. The Dow Jones closed for the first time at. . .7,000. Throughout this month I will be answering questions from the Reading Group Center to celebrate the new, twentieth […]
Tag Archives: Bohjalian
23
Aug
Aug
A couple of years ago, Chris Ashby, director of operations at the Champlain Valley Exposition, saw three boys peering longingly through a fence at the Champlain Valley Fair. He guessed the kids were 8 or 9 years old. On the other side of fence was the fair’s tractor pull, and Ashby could hear the indefatigable […]
The Writing Process, Untold Stories, Vermont
A little too much like life: Aging and the approaching end to Idyll Banter
16
Aug
Aug
In one of the last weeks of my father’s life — though we had no idea at the time that he would be leaving us shortly as a result of a burst blood vessel in his brain — he asked me to intervene with the caregivers at his assisted living facility who felt he […]
09
Aug
Aug
If you really want to understand Vermont, spend a little time with Georgia. Georgia is a 65-pound pit bull and chocolate Lab mix — a classic rescue mutt — with a wattle under her neck that could double as a change purse, but makes her no less endearing. Earlier this week, she spent two hours […]
26
Jul
Jul
Finding an 1880 Vermont farmhouse, fully intact, smack in the middle of the road just never gets old. Watching it on a flatbed truck ascend a 13 percent grade? Even better. Such was the nail-biting theater here in Lincoln last Wednesday afternoon. Christie Sumner’s old house was becoming Todd and Jen Goodyear’s new one, and […]
19
Jul
Jul
Unless you have been living under a rock — or in self-imposed isolation with Boo Radley — you have probably watched the ballyhooed publication of Harper Lee’s “Go Set a Watchman” last week. Barnes & Noble hasn’t released the actual number it sold the day the book arrived on Tuesday, but the bookstore chain has […]
12
Jul
Jul
Vaneasa Stearns, owner of the illustrious Lincoln General Store here in Lincoln, Vermont, has been in this column a lot over the 23 years I have been writing Idyll Banter. Her most recent appearance that was more than a mere cameo was two summers ago, on her and her husband’s 25th wedding anniversary. I chronicled […]
14
Jun
Jun
Earlier this month I gave a speech on Cape Cod, and I was struck by how much the elbow of the peninsula has fallen in love with the great white shark. In Chatham, there was a display of wooden sharks painted and designed by area artists on Main Street: “Sharks in the Park.” Signs along […]
12
Jun
Jun
I rarely have the slightest idea where my books are going. That’s not a confession, it’s simply a reality. I don’t work from an outline. I don’t know the last sentence when I write the first sentence, a prerequisite for John Irving — a novelist whose work I revere. And I don’t create maps or […]
09
Jun
Jun
Neil Gaiman says, “This is how you do it; you sit down at the keyboard and put one word after another until it’s done.” Dorothy Parker caustically (but accurately) observed that “writing is the art of applying the ass to the seat.” And Stephen King recommends “butt glue” — or “gluing your butt to the […]
