MARLBORO-Music is central to Into the Wilderness, Deborah Lee Luskin’s award-winning novel set at the Marlboro Music Festival in 1964.
Luskin will speak about turning music into words at the Marlboro Community Center, 524 South Rd., Saturday, Aug. 1, at 3 p.m.
In Into the Wilderness, we meet Rose Mayer, a 64-year-old New Yorker who has just been widowed for a second time and doesn’t know what she’s going to do with the rest of her life. Percy Mendell is a 64-year-old born-and-bred Vermonter who doesn’t know what he’s going to do when he retires at the end of the year. She’s a Democrat; he’s a Republican. They have nothing in common — except music, which becomes their common language.
“Music is central to the novel. Luskin is convincing in translating the aural, physical, and emotional power of music into words on the paper. The result is a wonderful novel,” wrote John McCright in The Addison Independent when the book was first published in 2010. It was recently reissued by Sibylline Press and is more salient than ever.
Set against the 1964 presidential election, when Vermont did not elect the Republican candidate for the first time in 109 years and was facing the end of one town, one vote districting for the Vermont House, Into the Wilderness resonates in today’s fractured political landscape.
The story captures Vermont as it was beginning to shift from a century of Republican control to a Democratic majority in Montpelier. It also captures a musical moment at the Marlboro Music Festival when, on Aug. 2, 1964, the famed Guarneri Quartet made its debut — and Rose and Percy are there.
A day before the 62nd anniversary of this debut, Luskin will speak about the music in the book and read some of the music of her words. Music — live, recorded, and sung — occurs throughout the novel. There’s even a playlist on Luskin’s website, deborahleeluskin.com/music-in-into-the-wilderness.
Books will be available for purchase and signing.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.