<![CDATA[The Inn at Lake Devine]]>

false <![CDATA[The Inn at Lake Devine]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171630031m/109999.jpg 109999 10 In the early 1960s, a Massachusetts family suffers a polite awakening. Inquiring about summer openings at a Vermont inn, the Marxes receive a killingly civil response, which ends, "Our guests who feel most comfortable here, and return year after year, are Gentiles." Apparently the Marxes are not quite as ideally average as they thought, at least on the basis of their surname. So begins The Inn at Lake Devine, Elinor Lipman's disarming and very funny exploration of the power of pride and place. Natalie, the youngest Marx daughter, will literally spend years responding to this rebuff. At first she taunts the innkeeper, Ingrid Berry, by phone and mail, stressing by exaggeration that a system which welcomes WASP wife-murderers but not famed convert Elizabeth Taylor is both unfair and inane. In 1964, our Anne Frank adept even goes so far as to send off a copy of the newly minted Civil Rights Act: "Who knew if I'd ever exchange another letter with a documented anti-Semite?" she asks. "Just in case no one ever insulted me again--in this land of religious freedom and ironclad civil rights--I employed the big gun I was saving for future transgressors: 'P.S.,' I typed and underlined: 'In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.'" The next summer Natalie manages to engineer an invite to Lake Devine, coming in on the coattails of Robin Fife, a good-natured, none-too-swift fellow camper whose family are regulars: "We all wanted to cross the threshold as guests and not visitors, and maybe I, in my early-teen disguise, was best suited to be a spy in the house of Devine. It was our duty to show that we--with the blood of Moses, Queen Esther, Leonard Bernstein, and Sid Caesar coursing through our veins--were the equal of any clientele." But by the end of her stay, Natalie is fed up with the Fifes' relentless good will and Mrs. Berry's covert ill will. All in all, she is relieved to return to firm social ground, and doesn't devote much thought to her "Gentile ambitions" for the next 10 years. A letter about a Camp Minnehaha reunion, however, brings Robin back into the picture, and Natalie is again invited to Lake Devine--this time for her campmate's marriage to the eldest Berry son. But enough plot summary. The Inn at Lake Devine is full of sweet and sharp surprises that would be churlish to reveal. Lipman offers up sparkling scenes of serious social mischief, explorations of identity, delicious food (though a deadly mushroom lasagna momentarily clouds the picture), and a wedding party or two. All this and a pair of the menschiest WASP brothers in literary history--not to mention phrases such as shnook, shmendrick, and shmegege--make The Inn at Lake Devine the perfect, provocative comedy. 2719843 1998 The Inn at Lake Devine total:812|5:172|4:344|3:251|2:36|1:9| 812 3070 991 96 4 2 false false Wed May 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 07 12:38:43 -0800 2008 Thu May 29 00:10:16 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Fri Mar 07 15:35:07 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 31 12:13:10 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Jan 17 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 17:13:39 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 17:19:48 -0800 2009 1 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Sep 13 05:44:25 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 13 05:58:22 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 14:25:46 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 14:44:23 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 09:32:53 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 09:41:59 -0700 2009
The story begins when a Jewish family inquires about room availability at a Vermont inn. They get the reply that the hotel serves "...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat May 01 00:00:00 -0700 1999 Sun Dec 09 17:25:33 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 23 08:59:47 -0800 2007 3 0 false false Sun Jun 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 22:15:26 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 22:15:26 -0700 2009 The Rutland Jewish Center gets an implied shout out, I decided, when mention is made of "family in Rutland" at a Catskills resort. The Gartners, perhaps?
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Lipman captured my attention from the first sentence. I never read Hobson's Gentlman's Agreement, but the theme of these t...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jul 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 18 15:41:18 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 18 15:43:28 -0700 2009
]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Fri Apr 17 10:52:53 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 17 11:09:37 -0700 2009 2 5 0 false false Fri Feb 06 12:56:54 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 06 12:57:56 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sat Jan 17 13:54:46 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 13:55:38 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 08:10:26 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 08:11:46 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jan 05 17:43:14 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 17:43:14 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jun 02 10:03:40 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 02 10:04:28 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 20 21:52:10 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 20 21:53:56 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=109999