Book Review - "The Tangerine Cafeteria"

BOOK REVIEW

“The Tangerine Cafeteria”

166 pages – by Mary Elizabeth Furnald

Reviewed by Jeb Ladouceur 

There’s something totally disarming about this little gem of a book, and I don’t think we reviewers should be the least bit embarrassed when admitting that we find it hard to define or otherwise describe. After all, if I were to show readers of this critique the first book I ever read as a six-year-old in French Canada—the classroom reader, “Mary, John, and Peter,” (first published in 1933)—they would undoubtedly offer adjectives like ‘simple,’ ‘charming,’ ‘unspoiled’ or ‘memorable.’ And all would be appropriate.

Terms you will never see applied to Mary Elizabeth Furnald’s fictional memoir … based on reminiscences about her great-aunt Miss Susie Stowers, and the actual restaurant she founded … are ‘exciting,’ ‘complex,’ and ‘sophisticated.’

But that is not intended to detract from Furnald’s “The Tangerine Cafeteria” … because the first-grade reader that I’ll never forget, was also far from thrilling or convoluted, and neither are the paintings of Anna Mary Robertson breathtaking, intricate, or erudite … though the tiny woman from upstate New York was ultimately memorialized by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and President John F. Kennedy alike. Her plain, endearing works have sold for more than a million dollars each, and they even adorn the walls of The White House. You know her as ‘Grandma Moses.’

Mary Furnald’s love for her great-Aunt Susie permeates every page of this slender book, now available in soft cover and as a Kindle E-Book on Amazon, and it’s the kind of work that virtually cries out to be released as an Audio Book as well. I’ve never met (or even seen) Mary, but I do know that homespun tales like this one evidently lend themselves to direct narration by the author, unless some physical incapacity prohibits it.

It’s not surprising (at least, not to me) that, as was the case with Grandma Moses, Furnald is an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a passionate genealogist. Women with such ancestral credentials and interests frequently turn to literary pursuits, just as their organization itself sponsors hundreds of essay contests throughout the country annually. It would not be surprising to learn that this was the way the author’s attraction to the printed word was sparked.

The wonderful thing about nostalgic books like “The Tangerine Cafeteria” is that they have such broad appeal. Who, man or woman, will not be moved by the easy flow and heartfelt messages contained in the following excerpts clearly drawn from real events?

“Miss Susie, I’m taking them boys to Snowden to live with me. I’m gonna take care of them poor little babies with no mama.”

Or, in describing a perhaps little known aspect of Pearl Harbor’s long reach:

“In Montgomery…pilots from the U.S., England, France and Canada were trained to fly fighter planes… Anyone who had an extra room in their house was trying to accommodate young women who wanted to be near their husbands assigned overseas.”

The overriding impression that Mrs. Furnald’s book leaves us with is that the author has obviously been aching to introduce … in the simplest, universally understood terms she could muster … an industrious, compassionate, and above all loving woman who was the personification of Southern Hospitality. In finally doing so, the author has fulfilled a lifelong objective, and now she, like her Great-Aunt, has contributed significantly to the noble and gracious southern mystique that is at the heart of this lovely memoir.

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Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of ten novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. Ladouceur’s newest thriller THE QUANTUM SYNDROME is patterned on the Atlanta child murders of the 80s and is set on Eastern Long Island. His next novel is titled “THE SEQUEL.” It will explore the odd relationship between Harper Lee and Truman Capote. The Website is www.Jebsbooks.com.