Small town must face hard past in Watts’ novel
Gethers highlights mom’s career in ‘My Mother’s Kitchen’
By Christina Lebetter
‘No One Is Coming to Save Us’ (Ecco), by Stephanie Powell Watts It’s been 17 years since JJ Ferguson left his hometown of Pinewood, North Carolina. Now that he’s returned (with a Gatsbyesque plan to build his dream home atop Brushy Mountain and reunite with his high school sweetheart, Ava), everyone is watching. While JJ builds, Ava tries desperately to have a baby with her tired, distant husband, Henry. Ava’s mother, Sylvia, busies herself in the affairs of anyone who will listen, including her daughter, sister, husband and even a prisoner who’s recently begun calling her. With JJ back in the picture, both women are forced to examine their lives in a new light in Stephanie Powell Watts’ debut novel, “No One Is Coming to Save Us.”
The story takes place against a post-integration small town America backdrop. While some townsfolk look forward to better days ahead, most are simply exhausted, especially when they compare their own situation with JJ’s and his newfound wealth.
With an omniscient narrative, the author slips readers into the thoughts of the frustrated mistress staring out the window of her trailer, the wrinkled man with his eyes closed on the couch, the boy with no money wiping his face in the hot sun.
Watts drip-feeds readers a deliberate plot thick with dialogue and substance. A phrase, which on one page seems innocuous, reveals weighty truths down the road, and what first appears like disjointed lives bouncing off one another turns out to be relationships tethered together by history and heartache. Not all is weighed down, though. Conversations between Sylvia and her sassymouthed sister, Lana, provide brilliantly crafted, well-timed hilarity interspersed amid the surrounding despair.
The characters will draw you in, one tired sigh at a time. From their perspective, we’re given a story about what happens when the past refuses to remain where we’ve buried it.
“My Mother’s Kitchen”
(Henry Holt and Co), by Peter
Gethers
In a delightfully moving memoir, Peter Gethers shares entertaining and intimate stories about his mom’s celebrated culinary career. “My Mother’s Kitchen” details the life of celebrated cook and cookbook writer Judy Gethers and the gift her son worked tirelessly to give her at the end of her life.
When Judy Gethers suffers from two strokes in her twilight years, leaving her unable to cook for herself, Peter Gethers does everything he can to make the remaining time they have as fulfilling as possible. Knowing that two of Judy’s favorite pastimes are eating good food and reminiscing about fabulous meals gives Gethers an idea: He asks his mom to compose the perfect breakfast, lunch and dinner menu so he can recreate these dishes in one spectacular feast.
Gethers embarks on an insightful journey. Because Judy’s all-star menu dishes span several decades, Gethers showcases his mother’s biography through a culinary lens. He details the legendary restaurant Ratner’s on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, owned by Judy’s father, as well as the kitchen of the renowned Ma Maison in Los Angeles, where Judy began working when she was 53. With each breakfast item, appetizer, entree or dessert, Gethers touches on another chapter in his mother’s life.
After tempting the reader’s palate with a smorgasbord of gourmet treats, Gethers is kind enough to share all of the recipes from his mother’s fantasy menu with his readers. He even includes his own notes to help foodies navigate the sometimes meticulous instructions from world-famous chefs, who just happen to be Judy’s personal friends.
“My Mother’s Kitchen” is more than a story about the comforts and pleasures of the perfect Eggs Benedict or Tarte Tatin. It’s about finding your inner passion and sharing that enthusiasm with those around you. Learning to cook changed Judy’s life, but more important, it gave her an excuse to gather those she loved most around the table to share and experience something special. “The Lost Order” (Minotaur), by Steve Berry
“The Lost Order,” Steve Berry’s latest Cotton Malone adventure, combines the history of a secret society with a look inside the Smithsonian Institution — and it’s terrific.
Before the Civil War, an organization known as the Knights of the Golden Circle worked behind the scenes to try and establish a separate country. When war broke out, those plans were snuffed and a peaceful solution to achieve the group’s goals was thwarted. The vast amount of wealth in the group’s clutches disappeared and most of it was never found.
In the present, former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone is recruited to go on a treasure hunt to find the missing loot, assuming the vast treasure even exists. What Malone doesn’t realize is that the group, considered defunct, is still in operation, and protections are in place to insure the treasure is never found.
To complicate matters, two factions of the organization are working to achieve different goals: One wants to keep the status quo while the other wants the funds to achieve a radical change. Malone is linked to everything, including a distant relative who was a spy for the Confederacy.
Berry’s fans will love his latest endeavor as he brings more detail into Malone’s past and how he came to be known as Cotton. The villains are a bit over the top, and their ultimate goal is somewhat confusing, but it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Berry has written another gripping novel. (AP)