Not Your Oprah’s Bookclub

Don’t forget that November’s Book Club meeting is one week from today, Tuesday November 18, 7:00, Cedars Cafe. If you had the chance to meet David Giffels at last week’s Ytown Readers Series, you’re probably as intrigued as I was. Giffels’s humility and self-effacing humor are charming, and it is this charm that makes all the way home such an engrossing read.

The Giffels Family

Woven into Giffels’s chronicles of restoring a crumbling mansion (that he purchased for the shocking price of $65,000) are memories of his family, observations about his marriage, tidbits of Akron history. Giffels’s description of the mansion’s “dark charm” where the overwhelming opulence meets the equally overwhelming disrepair:  a ten foot tall harp and twin crystal chandeliers share space with 55 turkey pans filled with rain water. Giffels is encouraged in his restoration (more like resurrection) adventures by his father, my favorite person in the book, who believes that any struture still standing can be fixed.

Although I’m only about a third of the way through the book so far, I’d say that my favorite feature is the sense of place as it is communicated through Giffels’s relationships with other people. As a Ytown native and fellow rustbelter, I understood perfectly when Giffels he describes how he chose his home inspector: “I called my dad and asked him if he knew anyone who might do the job. (This is how professional relationships are forged in places like Akron, by people like us).” Of course, the inspector, Steve, drives a beaten yellow pick-up truck that runs on propane. These are the real people, the most interesting characters, that we meet along this journey.

I hope you’ll join us to discuss this original and yet familiar memoir. Also, don’t forget to mark your calendars for Saturday November 29, when we celebrate the release of Chris’s The Love We Share Without Knowing.