Annie —
Sandwich by Catherine Newman
Catherine Newman’s second novel is hilarious, poignant and perceptive. On their annual Cape Cod family holiday, Rocky is clinging on to the joy that she feels to be ‘sandwiched’ halfway between her newly adult children and her healthy but ageing parents. Over the week of their trip, everyday moments veer between farcical and emotional, as seven adults across three generations cram into the same shack that has been home to decades of their summer memories.
Newman skewers the often overlooked character of the middle-aged mother, emphasising her ongoing maternal feelings while also acknowledging her life as a woman outside of those children, and as a child herself. A gorgeous read that is full of warmth and life, this will have you rocking with laughter and gasping with compassion and understanding.
All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley
I have been finding it hard to find a book to hold my attention recently, but within minutes of starting All the Beauty in the World I knew that this book would be among my favourite reads of the year. Following the early death of his beloved brother, author Patrick Bringley worked as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum in New York for over a decade. He brings us with him as he starts the job in his fug of grief, primarily for the time he can spend with beautiful art while he processes his loss and the relatively undemanding job description.
Through intimate engagement with particular pieces, as well as amusing anecdotes of his colleagues, museum visitors and vignettes from his life, we see the way that art can illuminate and reflect our own experiences back at us. An ex-New Yorker staffer, Bringley does a wonderful job of describing the art he is charged with guarding, at the same time acknowledging that words are often inadequate to represent the feelings and thoughts that great art provokes in us.