Whitcoulls Recommends: Lake Effect and Every Second Counts

Lake Effect by Cynthia d’Aprix Sweeney. In 1977, just as The Joy of Sex is sweeping through suburbia, neighbours Nina Larkin and Finn Finnegan leave their respective families for a new life together in a seismic betrayal which ripples through their children’s lives and has a profound, ongoing impact on them all. Yet family bonds are not easily broken and somehow seem to stretch, bend and accommodate all the chaos and mystery and love which life throws at them. This author writes wonderfully about family dynamics - small stories about everyday people living ordinary lives which in their own way are fascinating.

Every Second Counts by Charlotte Glennie. Charlotte Glennie was TVNZ’s first Asia correspondent based in Hong Kong from where she lived a frenetic life chasing down major world events, natural disasters, political turmoil and more. This is a compilation of recent world history which humanizes those involved, told with insight and fierce empathy and is a fascinating account of the stories of our times told by someone who was there and witnessed it all first hand. Highly recommended. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talksb.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Right, book manager at Wikeles. Joan McKenzie's with me. Now,
good morning, good morning, what have you got for us today?

Speaker 3 (00:18):
My first book is called Lake Effect by Cynthia Dupre Sweeney,
and some years ago she wrote a book called The Nest,
which was a kind of family story of family saga
which we at Witkells really loved. So I was very
keen to get my hands on this one. And listeners
will be familiar with the fact that in the nineteen
sixties the sexual Revolution came along, and then in the

(00:40):
early seventies you might remember that doctor Alex Comfort published
his groundbreaking work The Joy of Sales Right, which eventually,
in this book, made its mark in the suburbs of Rochester,
New York. It was a booked at that time. It
helped women look at their lives differently and go in
search of genuine happiness. So when the character Nina Larkin

(01:01):
has given a copy by a friend who's recently divorced,
she finds it profoundly unsettling. In fact, the friend bought
seven copies and dished them out to pretty much everyone
she knew, and Nina soon begins having an affair with Finn,
who lives directly across the street.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
We're so intrigued as to where this was going to go.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, no, I was going there.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
This is an interesting setup.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
So as neighbors, their families are pretty much intertwined. Their
kids are particularly close, so Nina and Finn really messy.
They head away for a quick divorce and remarriage, which
is a seismic betrayal to all of their kids, which
then of course has repercussions throughout their lives.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
And it is Rochester.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
It is a city, but cities have suburbs and small
communities where everyone knows what's going on and has an opinion.
But this is a story which reminded me and reminds
those of us who read it that families have their
own special glue and no matter what gets thrown at
them over time, there is something in the fabric of
a family that can shift and change and move to

(02:01):
accommodate the things that get thrown at it, which is
what this book really demonstrates very well. So like the
Nest which I mentioned earlier, it is one of those
family dynamic stories, which is really meaningful and I found
it thoroughly enjoyable.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Okay interesting, And at last weekend we had Charlotte Glenny
on the show. She has released a memoir, Every Second Counts,
which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
Yes, she's terrific, isn't she. Listeners who heard her last
week will know that she's a New Zealand journalist. Her
careers included some of the most challenging and extraordinary recent
world events, things like the two thousand and eight Sick
One earthquake, Boxing Day, tsunami, migrant refugee camps, that kind
of thing. But first, as you will know, she had

(02:44):
to recover from a terrible accident she had while she
was backpacking in Croatia, and it took her months, if
not years, to recover. And in fact, I think that
story is a story all of its own.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, it is very much so.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah. But after that she did recover, and in the
two thousands she persuaded Television New Zealand to make her
their first Asia correspondent based in Home and then she
really hit the road. The pace at which she worked
was frenetic, simply extraordinary. She filed stories from China, Mongolia, Russia, Singapore,

(03:18):
North Korea, other places. She'd just get home from doing
one story and suddenly she was off again on another.
And it's a real ride alongside her as she remembers
what it was like during those years. I found the
book was so concerned with the humanity of people caught
up in these situations, and there was so much compassion

(03:38):
and for me, getting the chance to ride alongside her
as it were and see exactly firsthand what it was
like for all those people was really deeply moving.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
But it's quite a unique lifestyle, isn't it, you know,
And it does take a toll, and there's potentially you're
sacrificing so much, so.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Much, and it would not mete everybody. Really interesting, Yeah, yeah, No,
it's a thoroughly enjoyable look back at recent history through
the eyes of somebody who was actually there.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
But the other great thing about it is that we
know all the names, we know all the people that
she works worth and she's talking about in the book,
because you know, she's a New Zealander working in the
New Zealand you know, industry, industry.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
But it's much with an international focus.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, definitely, No, I thoroughly enjoyed it as well. So
the first book that Joan mentioned was Lake Effect by
Cynthia Dupree Sweeney, and the second book, Every Second Counts
by Charlotte Glenny. Thank you so much, Joan, Thank you
for more from.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
The Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen live to News
Talks it Be from nine am Sunday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio