The Love Season Part 22

She prepped by reading copiously, from Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential to Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires. She redoubled her usual food magazine reading of publications like Gourmet, Bon Appet.i.t, and Food & Wine.

"Rarely do I come across something on a menu that I don't know what it is," says Hilderbrand, who eats out frequently with her husband.

Foodie Stories.

To further give her books a sense of behind-the-scenes restaurant work, Hilderbrand volunteered to work at Nantucket's well-known 21 Federal restaurant during Christmas Stroll one year. They told her she could pour water, then demoted her to the coat room, saying they were afraid she would spill the water. But she interviewed chefs, bartenders, and waiters, soaking in details-like the banter among kitchen workers-which she re-creates in the conversation between brothers who work in the kitchen of The Blue Bistro.

Jane Silva, former owner of the Galley at Cliffside Beach Club (the model for The Blue Bistro), is one of several muses Hilderbrand invited to this recreation of The Love Season dinner. Silva spent hours telling Hilderbrand stories about The Opera House, a now-closed, glamorous restaurant where the island's artists gathered and Silva once saw Judy Garland sitting on the piano to sing. Silva says that The Opera House chef, the late Lucien Van Vyve, was her mentor and friend, who often hosted elaborate dinner parties, with hand-painted menus, at his home in the off-season.

Now a T-s.h.i.+rt and souvenir shop, The Opera House is the model for Marguerite's restaurant, Les Parapluies, which, in the book, drew ardent fans willing to eat whatever chef Marguerite felt like having on the prix fixe menu that night.

"It wasn't so much a reflection of The Opera House as it was that she captured the mood of those grand old restaurants," Silva says, sitting on the terrace at 5 Quince St.

Dining With Friends.

On the night of the dinner party, it is quickly apparent that the dining room of the 275-year-old house was not built to accommodate a dozen. Since her book focuses strongly on female friends.h.i.+p, Hilderbrand asks the guys if they would mind sitting in the kitchen. After some good-natured ribbing about being relegated to the kids' table, they cordially agree.

But first, Hilderbrand says raising her gla.s.s: "All of you were important to me while I was writing this book, and that's why we're here. A toast to all of you!"

Dusk is falling hard outside the dining room's bay window as the women sit down to feast on dinner and conversation. Someone asks Wendy Hudson how things are going at the bookstore she owns downtown; someone else asks about when a neighbor will be back on island. As winegla.s.ses are refilled, there's talk about how local produce compares to hothouse; and about the stifling hot weather, which has caused Hilderbrand's homemade baguettes to rise beyond the edges of the pan and form tasty globs of bread.

But quickly, conversations around the table s.h.i.+ft to more personal topics: how couples met, children, grandchildren, and friends.h.i.+ps. In the wash of words, in the candlelit dining room, it is easy to see these island ties; to imagine Marguerite Beale and her G.o.dchild, Renata Harris, in this place, resurrecting secrets of past and present.

By Gwenn Friss, Food Editor.

Excerpted from Cape Cod Times 2006.

Keep on Reading.

Don't Miss Elin Hilderbrand's Other Nantucket Novels.

The Blue Bistro.

"A wonderful, wonderful love story, the kind that you read, then recommend to many many friends...."-James Patterson, bestselling author of Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas Summer People.

"Striking not only for the ingenuity of its riveting plot, but also for the acute sense of character and the finely tuned craftsmans.h.i.+p with which Elin Hilderbrand brings it's every nuance to life."-Madison Smart Bell, author of Anything Goes Nantucket Nights.

"Things get more twisted at every turn, with enough lies and betrayals to fuel a whole season of soap operas...readers will be hooked."

-Publishers Weekly.

The Beach Club.

"Elin Hilderbrand's first novel...holds up as a surprisingly touching work...a work of fiction you're likely to think about weeks after you put it down."-People magazine Available from St. Martin's Paperbacks.

Reading Group Questions.

What is the love season? Is it a place in time? An environment? A feeling? Take a moment to discuss the meaning of the t.i.tle.

A show of hands: Who has been to the island of Nantucket? How is it similar or different than portrayed in The Love Season? Others: Does this book make you want to go there for a visit?

The action in The Love Season centers around two elaborate meals: the one Marguerite prepares for Renata, and the dinner party at the Driscoll's. What is the significance of food-how it's prepared, served, and appreciated-in The Love Season? Discuss the dynamics, and politics, of the dining table.

In what ways is reading a good novel like eating a good meal? Are readers ever truly satisfied at "The End"? Or are they always left hungry for more?

What are the themes of hunger and nourishment that resonate throughout Marguerite's life? And in this novel?

Renata believed that Marguerite was like a s.h.i.+pwreck-she had, somewhere within her hull, a treasure trove of information about Candace. Do you think, in the end, that Renata found the answers she was looking for? Can one individual ever reveal the "truth" about another's life? How is it possible to discover someone's essence after death?

Talk about the characters' lives off the island of Nantucket-in Paris, Morocco, and New York City. What did these outside locations reveal about the inner lives of Marguerite, Candace, and Renata respectively?

During a moment of romantic desperation, the younger Marguerite had asked herself: Did love fall into categories, or was it a continuum? Were there right ways to love and wrong ways, or was there just love and its object? How might the more "modern" Renata answer these questions? How would you?

Discuss the symbolism of Renoir's Les Parapluies painting as it's represented and referenced in the book. (You may wish to have a reproduction of it on hand during your meeting as well.) Marguerite, during her early visits with Porter, played a game called "One Word." What word would each member of your group use to describe The Love Season?

Also by Elin Hilderbrand.

The Blue Bistro.

Summer People.

Nantucket Nights.

The Beach Club.

end.