Literary / Historical Fiction
Date Published: 12-02-2025
Publisher: Scrivener Quill
She and Rhys return to American where their values collide with antithetical and alien attitudes. It is these experiences that come to challenge long-held beliefs and provide a vivid counterpoint to their recent immersion in the Modernist aesthetic and world view.
Resolved to return to France, Gemma shares a final day in America with Gerald Murphy at his ocean front Hampton estate. As this unhurried afternoon unfolds, it becomes clear that Gemma’s skepticism and doubtfulness have been replaced with a clear-sighted maturity and hardened resolve. The next morning, aboard the Ile de France, Gemma and Rhys sail for France.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Graduation
June 1924. Today Gemma Danforth was to graduate from
Wellesley with a major in French literature and a minor in secondary education.
During her junior and senior years she had also tasted journalism, serving as a
literary commentator and occasional book reviewer for the Wellesley News.
But, despite these accomplishments, and despite the rigor of her years of
study, as graduation approached she felt that she was about to be cast headlong
and unprepared into the 1920s. The economic and cultural aftershocks from the
Great War had only served to deepen her awareness of the narrowness of her
life’s experience.
The symbolism of the
end to her years of formal education wasn’t lost on the inquisitive and
unsettled young woman. Today, at graduation, she found herself unsure of her
place in the world and doubtful as to the depth of her convictions. This same
doubtfulness, combined with a mild skepticism, had bled into the years of
religious doctrine she had encountered, not only in her schools’ Episcopal
affiliations, but also as a part of her parents’ New England Unitarianism.
It wasn’t a
coincidence that, in the weeks leading to today’s ceremony, she had struggled
with what to wear beneath her graduation robe. Should it be a modest cotton
candy-striped bow dress, or perhaps, as a reflection of the times, a slinky
straight-waisted dress in pale olive silk? Like a closing vise, the imminence
of this decision served to add froth to her quiet turmoil.
Her wardrobe
indecision differed little from a more general ambivalence. Gemma hadn’t
escaped an awareness that hers had been a charmed young life. As much as she
sought to avoid the stereotypes of her upbringing, her tastes and mannerisms
often said otherwise, and about these she remained self-conscious. Within her
coursework, she had encountered the often jarring contrasts between her own
academic cornucopia and the desiccated opportunities that existed for the
students in America’s many underfunded schools. In particular, the educational
system of the southern states served as a telling counterweight to the
abundance of her own experience. These contrasting educational realities were
further highlighted when she learned of Julius Rosenwald’s philanthropic
campaign to spread the message of education’s value to the descendants of a
once enslaved people.
She found herself
treading the awkward path between ambivalence and indecision. It would be
comfortably seamless to follow in her father’s footsteps at the Paris offices
of the Herald Tribune where her writing skills might be put to good use.
It would be correspondingly uncomfortable for her to apply her educational
skills to schools in the American south. Perhaps, she hoped, a sense of
resolution might flow from the poultice of time, layered over several
unscripted months spent living near her parents in France. But Gemma’s innate
sense of fairness had led her to engage the world on an unassuming footing, and
she fretted that exercising this choice might be thought of as coasting on the
luxury of family money.
A decision she made.
With the ceremony’s flowing black robe draped over pale olive silk, she walked
across the stage with her lower lip pinched gently between her teeth.
Gemma wasn’t lost but
her north star was unsteady.
About the Author
Asher and his wife were drawn to Idaho’s arid vistas, glistening rivers, and rugged skylines. As a travelling angler, he has pursued Atlantic salmon throughout their natural range, has sought sea run brown trout in Patagonia, and steelhead in his home waters in the Pacific Northwest. He and his wife have cycled much of France, and, during quiet times at home, he enjoys music and plays cello.
Previously, he has published essays, and short pieces in the British sporting literature. He is a member of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, the Barbara Pym Society, and is a proud supporter of PEN America. He lives in Idaho with his wife, adult children, and his bird dogs.
Contact Links
No comments:
Post a Comment