Meet,
Mingle, and Read (June 26, 2012)
“We’re all wounded
in some way,” he said. “It’s not what
you have that makes you beautiful. It’s
what you’ve lost and still managed to go on living without.”
Steven Raichlen, Island
Apart
Steven Raichlen
has been many things in his career: a
food critique, a wine and spirits editor, a grill master, and a cookbook
author. His childhood dream, though,
was realized when he published his first novel Island Apart, an unlikely
love story set on the Martha’s Vineyard offshoot Chappaquiddick. Originally titled The Hermit of Chappaquiddick, the story
revolves around two central characters – The Hermit, a man who lives up to the
definition of his nickname, and Claire, a woman surviving both breast cancer
and divorce. The two meet by chance
when The Hermit discovers Claire in the aftermath of a minor biking accident
and continue to escalate their friendship through the exchange of gifts of
food. “Food is essential and primal,”
Raichlen explained. And it’s expressive
and important to both The Hermit and Claire, master chefs in their own rights,
so this simple form of communication draws them closer without spending actual
time together. Eventually, they do
break that barrier and discover kindred spirits in each other. Even when faced with a dark past and an
uncertain future, The Hermit and Claire fight for their desired happy ending.
Raichlen spent some time reading
from the novel as well as explaining his writing process. He had a clear vision of The Hermit shortly
after he and his wife began building their home on Chappaquiddick and that
vision spiraled into including Claire and the other cast of characters – who
they were, how they lived, what they did.
“I learned to write with an eraser,” Raichlen said as he took some time
to discuss his editorial process with his editors and his agent. Near the end of his presentation, he asked
for questions from the audience, which prompted one woman to tell the story of
a hermit she knew, thus sealing the universality of this sort of story. We all have a “hermit” in our lives –
someone who may have a rough or quiet exterior that shields a genuine and kind
individual who may need to be coaxed out of his shell. Island Apart is a reminder that the
journey to discovering someone’s innate humanity is more than worth it.