Memoirs & Coffee Book Group to Discuss "Bettyville"

The next meeting of Bernardsville Public Library’s book discussion group, Memoirs and Coffee, will be held on Tuesday, May 24 at 10:30 am in the library’s Community Room. Manager Pat Kennedy-Grant will lead the discussion of "Bettyville" (2015) by George Hodgman. [The author will not be present.]

A New York Times Bestseller and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, “Bettyville” recounts how the author leaves Manhattan for his hometown of Paris, Missouri, and finds himself—an unlikely caretaker and near-lethal cook—in a head-on collision with his aging mother, Betty, a woman of wit and will. Will George lure her into assisted living? He can’t bring himself to force her from the home both treasure—the place where his father’s voice lingers, the scene of shared jokes, skirmishes, and, behind the dusty antiques, a rarely acknowledged conflict: Betty, who speaks her mind but cannot quite reveal her heart, has never really accepted the fact that her son is gay.

As these two unforgettable characters try to bring their different worlds together, Hodgman reveals the challenges of Betty’s life and his own struggle for self-respect, moving readers from their small town to the star-studded corridors of Vanity Fair. Hodgman’s debut is both an indelible portrait of a family and an exquisitely told tale of a prodigal son’s return.

The New York Times reviewer described the book as, “A remarkable, laugh-out-loud book . . . Rarely has the subject of elder care produced such droll human comedy, or a heroine quite on the mettlesome order of Betty Baker Hodgman. For as much as the book works on several levels (as a meditation on belonging, as a story of growing up gay and the psychic cost of silence, as metaphor for recovery), it is the strong-willed Betty who shines through.”

George Hodgman is a veteran magazine and book editor who has worked at Simon & Schuster, Vanity Fair, and Talk magazine. His writing has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Interview, W, and Harper’s Bazaar, among other publications. He lives in New York City and Paris, Missouri.

There is no charge and no registration is needed to join the book discussion. Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.