DAILY TELEGRAM REVIEW OF FAMILY AT BOOKNOOK

Mark Lenz: Adrian provides backdrop for new novelBy Mark Lenz
Daily Telegram
Posted Jan 03, 2010

ADRIAN, Mich. —
“Dave Stanley had to get out of the house. With yesterday’s Adrian Daily Telegram tucked under his arm, he walked to his shop, Booknook.”

So begins “Family at Booknook,” a new novel I clearly couldn’t resist. It was written by Ann Arbor psychotherapist Brenda Humphrey Meisels and published in June. You may have seen it displayed under “Bestsellers” at both ends of Meijer’s book section, tucked below Stephanie Meyer’s “New Moon” and Michael Crichton’s “Pirate Latitudes.” Three photos of a young lady adorn the “Booknook” cover, sitting above a photo of what might be a French wine shop somewhere in Brittany.

Covers frequently don’t tell the tale, however, and “Family at Booknook” offers no clue that it’s actually set mostly in Adrian, between 1959 and 1981, at a fictional bookstore. My wife, Jill, discovered the book’s actual locale after she happened to check out a copy at the library. References to landmarks such as Bixby Hospital, Mr. Ed’s, Hammerman’s furniture and Frosty Boy pop up throughout its pages.

The story follows Sparrow Avery through her teen pregnancy in Milan and resettlement in Adrian, “where people don’t know her.” Single motherhood, education for her and her daughter and the growth of friends whose lives are connected with the book store make up Meisel’s tale. Sparrow lives in an apartment above Booknook, located at the corner of Winter and Maumee streets, and across the street from El Chapulin — a description that neatly fits the Jean Christopher Portraits building, even if the cover photo does not.

Meisels told me she came to Adrian in the 1970s and worked at Community Mental Health as a psychotherapist. She began Adrian Psychotherapy Associates and continued to work here until 1994, although she married and moved to Saline in 1979.

“I have a soft spot in my heart for Adrian,” Meisels related.

As a novel, the Author House publication is an interesting debut work. Meisels may have forgotten a few details (the spellings of old Drager Middle School and the Croswell, for example) but recalls enough others — Siena Heights College, the old A&W and the Holiday Inn lounge — to show some detailed familiarity with Adrian of the ’70s. Equally believable are the efforts to resolve old feelings and gritty circumstances. Neither Sparrow nor the rest escape unscathed, but Meisels’ main characters valiantly fight the various cycles of poverty, ignorance, abuse and loneliness.

In topic and temperament, “Booknook” reminded me of “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,” another unassuming novel I stumbled across last spring, which later went to No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Both offer a sense of place. It won’t be easy to pass the Jean Christopher building without imagining the fictional voice of Emily, Dave Stanley’s late wife and helper at Booknook, encouraging the old curmudgeon to act sensibly.

Meisels ran into difficulties of her own trying to market her book to Michigan stores. Many are going out of business. Book store chains have harsh return rules, and they’re also consolidating. Adrian will soon be without a Waldenbooks just months after losing Guided by Grace downtown.
Meisels developed a book Web site, familyatbooknook.blogspot.com, and contacted Meijer’s Ben Negron of Adrian and Georgette St. Amant of Ann Arbor, who arranged book signings and a concert. Meisels’ book is joined on Meijer’s shelves by those of two other local authors: marriage advocate and county judge Jim Sheridan’s “A Blessing for the Heart”; and Clinton Middle School teacher Laura (Schultz) Krzyzaniak’s two publications, “Honorable Mention” based loosely on her grandfather, Nathan Knowles, growing up in the early 1900s around Manitou Beach, and “Chasing a Dream, Riding to the Occasion” about Clinton rodeo cowboy Erik Wolford.

Publishing changes are opportunities for the determined. The Web and desktop editing have simplified writing in some ways, and even Kindle users need content to read, Hopefully, the shared Western culture of “Daisy Miller” and “Tess of d’Urbervilles” — both referred to in “Booknook” — will make the transition to reading’s future.

But it’s also fun to think of promoting Lenawee County as a literary setting. After all, the state’s film tax credit didn’t produce any jobs here. Maybe books can draw readers to visit, and to ensure Lenawee County locales such as book shops aren’t relegated to fiction.

Mark Lenz, editor of The Daily Telegram, can be contacted at 265-5111, ext. 230, or via e-mail at mlenz@lenconnect.com.