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By Frederick Dillen
Simon & Schuster,
New York, NY
Hardcover, 256 pp., $25
By Barbara Clark
bclark@barnstablepatriot.com
F
rederick Dillen, a
thoughtful writer,
has set his new book,
Beauty, in a Massachusetts
fishing town that for its time-
liness and spot-on relevance
could be situated right here
on Cape Cod. Though in fact
Elizabeth Island is meant to
be a facsimile of Gloucester,
the setting rings true for all
who face the contemporary
New England issues of over-
fishing, government regs and
catch limits in real working
towns whose history is bound
up with hard-working fisher-
men, now increasingly losing
the battle against huge fish
processing plants in faraway
corners of the world, and
developers who prefer a more
sanitized version of "quaint"
as they cater to a future of
condos and tourists.
Dillen clearly champions
those who prefer to keep their
working villages as just that:
"They wanted something
besides money, something that
sat on the ground and made
a product," as contrasted
with those who "would have
preferred something that only
used to make something."
Carol McManus works for
a big company liquidator that
strips and sells the get-your-
hands-dirty businesses that are
fast becoming just,a memory
in the former working class
areas of New England. She's
a burial expert of sorts,
traveling from place to place,
closing down operations that
were once the lifeblood of a
region. She's been promised
that closing down this seafood
products company will be her
last such job, and then her
employer will give her what
she's always wanted -a busi-
ness of her own to run.
Of course things don't go
as planned, and Carol gets
stiffed by the big guys, but
in a way that is beside the
point. The book practically
begs to be a page-turner, with
villains and good guys set
in stark relief, but it doesn't
deliver in that way. Instead
you find yourself turning the
pagesjust to learn more about
these now scruffy businesses
that are fast becoming just
another faux-quaint coastal
dot on the map of our tamed
and tattered environment. It's
really a kind of primer on the
state of the fishing industry in
New England -the excesses
of overfishing and over-regu-
lation that threaten those who
ply the seas.
Carol meets up with fisher-
men and with their wives, and
with one in particular who -
good for her - doesn't have a
wife; and she parlays her gut
feeling about the plant she's
sent to close into a personal
adventure as she makes a
move to become its owner
instead. Occasionally we're
hit over the head with one too
many songs of praise for the
working man, and not a few
sentences disintegrate into
moral tales. That said, I found
this to be ah immensely enjoy-
able story. The word "Beauty"
turns out to have a couple of
meanings that we discover as
we go along. A nice, but not
overwhelming, romance winds
through the pages. As for nail-
biting suspense, there's plenty
of it behind the scenes, play-
ing out in ordinary lives that
are permanently altered by the
many changes we've wrought
on our planet, not the least of
which play out in and around
our oceans. •
BOOK REVIEW :Beauty
SUSAN VAUGHNPHOTOS
AHEAD OF THE CURVE - tfevin Howard, executive director of the Arts
Foundation of Cape Cod,talksto artists and arts and culture organization
representatives Feb. 12aboutthefoundation'snew marketingstrategieswith
a new website, arts apps and a collaboration with Cape Cod Life Magazine.
CONTINUED FROM PAGEA&E:3
Thethirdmarketingcomponent,
involvesanexpandedcollaboration
with Cape Cod Life magazine, and
in particular, its website and app.
The magazine has long promoted
the visual arts through its annual
arts edition in June, but the Arts
Foundation isgoingto expand the
content to include theaters, muse-
ums and other arts and cultural
venues, Howard said.
He predicted that people will
buy and keepthemagazinelonger
because of its expanded content,
its beautiful layouts and its broad
distribution. For its 35th anniver-
sary year, Cape CodLifeis offering
a 35 percent discount on all ads,
so Howard urged the organiza-
tions to get their ads in by the
May 13 deadline. All foundation
members also willget a listing in
Cape Cod Life.
Julie Craven Wagner, advertis-
ingsalesmanager of Cape CodLife,
said the publication was the first
on the Cape to go online and the
online subscription is $5.99 with
a free app. Cape Cod Art also is
included in the subscription. The
magazinewilloffer itsLifeCanvas
feature to the Arts Foundation
this summer.
Thefoundationhassetup anew
annual fee structure for member
organizations based on their
budgets, starting at $100 for not-
for-profits under $50,000. There
are separate commercial fees, but
the individual artist fee will stay
the same at $30. The arts app will
haveaseparateannualfeeof $150.
All the information for the new
foundationwebsitewillbeadded in
March and April to be ready for a
soft launchinMayandafulllaunch
in June in time for the summer
tourist season, Howard said. Cur-
rent members will automatically
be transferred to the new website
and new members should sign up
by the end of February,he said.
"We're excited about this,"
Howard concluded. "We know
whatwehave here and wehaveto
do abetterjob of marketing Cape
Cod.Manydon'tunderstandwhat
a cultural destination this is."
Arts Foundation...
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