Southwest Florida Reading Festival - Twenty One Years Later

No! It's just not possible! Could it really be twenty-one years since I was a Lee County Library System employee who couldn't wait to get involved in this wild new endeavor. A reading festival - free to all - outdoors on the banks of the Caloosahatchee. It was a dream come true and so much fun and all because a librarian with a penchant for talking about books to anyone and everyone had a vision. Thank you Lesa Holstine. https://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/

The reading festival has been through several iterations over the years and I've been retired for six of them but I still try to be sure I'm in town when it rolls around. What a great opportunity to get up close and personal with writers. High on my list of must-see authors was William Kent Kreuger whose novel "This Tender Land" was on my top ten list for 2019. https://bit.ly/2IvXAGg

What a pure delight to discover that every conclusion I drew about Mr. Kreuger from reading his hauntingly beautiful book was on full display. He exuded such enthusiasm, such unadulterated joy at the crowd there to hear him, at the gorgeous day, and at the power of storytelling. Stories, he reminded us, can educate, enlighten, entertain, and inspire. But most important of all he said, citing both Jesus and Dr. Seuss, stories give us hope. 

Though he's best known for the long-running and highly successful Cork O'Connor mystery series, it was the book his publisher didn't want but that he wrote anyway, "Ordinary Grace," that started him on the path to stand alone novels. Thank goodness for us readers! 

Much of Kreuger's writing is informed by his life in St. Paul, Minnesota, and his interest in the indigenous culture of the Ojibwe people who are prominently featured in Louise Erdrich's work as well. In a brief reference to the current controversies over cultural appropriation in literature Kreuger told us that he has several of his Ojibwe friends read his manuscripts to ensure that he hasn't inadvertently erred through insensitivity or inauthenticity. I rather doubt that he ever could.

A very different experience followed when I visited the giant tent set up for Erik Larson. It was his second time appearing at the festival, he previously spoke to a standing room only crowd of six hundred in the Harborside event center where the festival used to be held. Maybe he hadn't been told that we were going to be outdoors in a less formal setting, though I'd bet there were at least three hundred of us seated and many more standing, Larson seemed stodgy and dry at the lectern compared to Kreuger's wandering the stage and taking selfies with the audience.  

At the end of what he called "his coronavirus tour," Larson was probably very tired of talking about "The Splendid and the Vile," his latest addition to the enormous amount of material written about Winston Churchill. But, he assured

us, his greatest joy is getting down and dirty in the archives and there he found enough treasure to write a compelling and very personal tale of Churchill and his family as they experienced the horrific "blitz," the unrelenting bombing raids by the German Luftwaffe from late 1940 through 1941. 

It wasn't until Larson told of gaining access to Churchill's daughter Mary's very revealing letters about her sexual escapades that the audience perked up and began to pay attention. And, in fact, for those of us who've been binge watching "The Crown," this tale of a family's courage and perseverance behind the scenes at number 10 Downing, at the famed country home Chequers, and at the more secret hideaway Ditchley really does sounds like a fascinating read. I plan to forgive Larson his pedantry and place a hold on his new book right now!