THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2019 // 19
BOOKMONGER
Portland author’s new novel focuses on fresh starts
To be honest, I found the
beginning of Portland author
Marie Bostwick’s new
novel, “Hope on the Inside,”
to be fairly bland. But Bost-
wick is a New York Times
bestselling author for a rea-
son, and once the story gets
into gear, it is a pretty engag-
ing ride.
Things begin like this:
Rick Carpenter gets home
early from work one day and
decides to surprise his wife
by baking a loaf of rosemary
olive bread.
But when Hope gets
home from her job as a
teacher of Family and Con-
sumer Science (the new term
for Home Economics), she is
instantly on alert.
“You only make rose-
mary olive bread when
something’s gone wrong and
you’re trying to break it to
me gently.”
That’s what being mar-
ried to one another for more
than three decades is like —
this husband and wife, par-
ents of four grown children,
know one another well.
Rick spills the beans.
Although he had taken on
THIS WEEK’S BOOK
”Hope on the Inside” By Marie
Bostwick
Kensington –360 pp –$15.95
a crushing workload as the
engineering fi rm he worked
for transitioned to new man-
agement, he and some of the
other senior engineers have
just been unceremoniously
forced into retirement.
There is a limited sever-
ance package, fortunately.
But as the months go by,
Rick begins to realize that
employers aren’t all too
crazy about hiring a 58-year-
old engineer — yes, age dis-
crimination does exist.
Then Hope’s school dis-
trict faces budget cuts. Hope
had only recently gone back
to teaching after raising their
own children. With no job
seniority, Hope is laid off.
The couple has to face
fi nancial reality and make
some drastic adjustments.
They sell their beloved Port-
land home and downsize to
a condo in Olympia, where
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their daughter lives. But
there’s still the matter of
securing work.
Hope fi nds something
fi rst — she gets hired to
teach a crafting class in the
local women’s prison.
Working with this pop-
ulation is an enormous and
stressful stretch for her and
comes with a whole set of
considerations she had never
encountered before. The
inmates have been trauma-
tized in so many different
ways, and Hope struggles to
make her class relevant to
them.
Gradually, she fi nds com-
mon ground. They, too,
worry about their children
and their families. They, too,
are seeking fresh starts.
When Hope introduces a
quilting project to her class,
genuine bonding begins. But
the project also introduces
problems that Hope had
been too naïve to anticipate.
“Hope on the Inside”
pieces together several sto-
ries of struggles, setbacks
and small victories as Hope,
her husband, her kids and
her students all grapple with
the vicissitudes of life.
In the end, Bostwick’s
fans won’t be disappointed.
She writes about quilts,
food and the healing power
of creativity. The spiritual
thread that underlies the
story shows in an occasional,
pertinent stitch here or there.
The author celebrates
family bonds and brings for-
ward various characters who
offer different bits of home-
spun (or hard-won) wisdom,
including the governor.
But Hope’s mom offers
perhaps the best advice:
“Whatever comes your way,
fi nd the happiness in it.”
That’s signature
Bostwick.
The Bookmonger is Bar-
bara Lloyd McMichael,
who writes this weekly col-
umn focusing on the books,
authors and publishers of
the Pacifi c Northwest. Con-
tact her at bkmonger@
nwlink.com