Frankie's Place: A Love Story
by Jim Sterba
(Grove Press; $23)
When Wall Street Journal reporter Jim Sterba fell in love with the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Frances FitzGerald, he also embraced her extended family and their Mount Desert Island retreat -- "Frankie's place." A Michigan farm boy who'd grown up not knowing his real father, Sterba was "a wanderer living in a suitcase" when he met FitzGerald, and he has a keen appreciation of the sense of place that comes naturally to Frankie's wealthy and accomplished family. His rambling, low-key storytelling style carries us along agreeably, whether he's describing the punishing fitness regimen he calls the "FitzGerald Survival School," or recounting the history of Bar Harbor (originally named "Eden"), or recalling a night he once spent in a Mongolian yurt with former New York Times executive editor Abe Rosenthal. Along the way, Sterba digresses now and then to share some of the couple's favorite recipes, from moules mariniere to bouillabaisse.
- Judy Ashkenaz
