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Open Book / Open Mind: Alice Elliott Dark

"Fellowship Point"

Dark, a professor of writing at Rutgers-Newark, discusses her instant classic novel about friendship, reunion and the world's few remaining wild places with bestselling novelist Kline. Book signing.

The series is sponsored by Montclair Public Library Foundation, The Investors Foundation and watchung booksellers. To support Open Book / Open Mind and other library programs, click here to donate. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alice Elliott Dark is the author of "Think of England" and two collections of short stories, "In the Gloaming" and "Naked to the Waist." Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New York Times, Best American Short Stories, and O. Henry: Prize Stories, among others. Her award-winning story “In the Gloaming” was made into two films. Dark is a past recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She is an Associate Professor at Rutgers-Newark in the MFA program and lives in Montclair, and is a member of the Open Book / Open Mind advisory board.

ABOUT THE BOOK

"'Fellowship Point' reads like a classic 19th-century novel in its beautifully woven, multilayered narrative, but it is entirely contemporary in the themes it explores; a deep and empathic interest in women’s lives, the class differences that divided us, the struggle to protect the natural world, and, above all, a reckoning with intimacy, history, and posterity....

Celebrated children’s book author Agnes Lee is determined to secure her legacy—to complete what she knows will be the final volume of her pseudonymously written Franklin Square novels; and even more consuming, to permanently protect the peninsula of majestic coast in Maine known as Fellowship Point. To donate the land to a trust, Agnes must convince shareholders to dissolve a generations-old partnership. And one of those shareholders is her best friend, Polly.

Polly Wister has led a different kind of life than Agnes: that of a well-off married woman with children, defined by her devotion to her husband, and philosophy professor with an inflated sense of stature. She exalts in creating beauty and harmony in her home, in her friendships, and in her family. Polly soon finds her loyalties torn between the wishes of her best friend and the wishes of her three sons—but what is it that Polly wants herself?

Agnes’s designs are further muddied when an enterprising young book editor named Maud Silver sets out to convince Agnes to write her memoirs. Agnes’s resistance cannot prevent long-buried memories and secrets from coming to light with far-reaching repercussions for all."—Simon & Schuster

“A sweeping story of lifelong best friends from Philadelphia Quaker families who share a vacation spot and a moral exigency…the rare 592-page novel you'll be sorry to finish. You will surely want to read this book, but you may be able to use its essential wisdom right now: 'There wasn’t time for withholding, not in this short life when you were only given to know a few people, and to have a true exchange with one or two.” Elegantly structured, beautifully written, and altogether diverting, with a powerful message about land ownership in America.'—Kirkus, starred review 

“It is hard to write about this novel without gushing. You sink into it with a sigh of contentment, as into a hot bath. Its characters, settings, and deftly woven plot pull you right in, the better to soak in its reflections on aging, writing, stewardship, legacies, independence, and responsibility. At its heart, Fellowship Point is about caring for the places and people we love.”—The Christian Science Monitor

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Christina Baker Kline the #1 New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, including "The Exiles," "Orphan Train," and "A Piece of the World," and the author and/or editor of five nonfiction books. She is published in more than 40 countries; her books are taught in universities, colleges, and high schools. She is a former longtime resident of Montclair. 

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