A Wealth of Inspiration

Sasha is in trouble. In Jenny Jackson's debut novel "Pineapple Street" the thirtysomething has moved to the "fruit district" of the pricey Brooklyn Heights neighborhood in New York City, just below Orange and Cranberry Street, via a seemingly benevolent real estate windfall. Her husband's generationally-wealthy WASP parents have absconded their four-story limestone and left the property to the newlyweds. The caveat being of course, that Sasha's in-laws can drop by anytime, leave all their belongings there, and keep a watchful eye over the former-family home to ensure nothing changes. After all, who would want to remodel their oh-so-nautical decor? In Jackson's comedy of manners, money, and marble countertops, inheritance always comes with strings — and relatives — attached.

A Vice President and Executive Editor at Alfred A. Knopf, Jackson, like her characters, is a resident of Brooklyn Heights and used her downtime during the pandemic to put her observations regarding the borough's less than sympathetic 1% class to use as she penned her first novel.

"When we were all shut down, and we weren't going to parties, and we weren't going out to lunch, and we weren't meeting, I felt this weird, psychic backlog of energy," Jackson said to Salisbury, Conn., based novelist Helen Klein Ross during an author talk at The White Hart Inn, also in Salisbury. "I wanted to make someone laugh, have some harmless gossip, and do the fun, intellectual flirting that you do in the real world as an agent when you're trying to make exciting things happen. Writing 'Pineapple Street' became an act of wish fulfillment."

Jackson's work is part social fantasy — for every nightmare scenario, there is still plenty to envy — and social commentary on the familial grip on wealth. "I think Millennials are in a very unique and strange position. The Baby Boomers are going to be passing down $68 trillion to their children and grandchildren. This is an unprecedented level of inherited wealth," Jackson said. Despite the limitations set by the financial hardships that the majority of the Millennial generation has faced by living through two national recessions during their prime earning years, a select few are set to inherit so much family money that Forbes reported that they will become (by the average, not the median) the richest generation in American history.

"The way tax structures are arranged in America means that these dynastic families are going to be responsible for keeping a good portion of that $68 trillion passed down to their immediate descendants. The scale of the inheritance is brand new. And Millennials have seen income inequality increase in a way the previous generation haven't. They are more versed in the nuances of it. I see people younger than me grappling with questions about wealth disparity that I didn't in my twenties and thirties."

Photo by Alexander Wilburn

Photo by Alexander Wilburn

Photo by Alexander Wilburn

Latest News

Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Travel league baseball came to Torrington Thursday, June 26, when the Berkshire Bears Select Team played the Connecticut Moose 18U squad. The Moose won 6-4 in a back-and-forth game. Two players on the Bears play varsity ball at Housatonic Valley Regional High School: shortstop Anthony Foley and first baseman Wes Allyn. Foley went 1-for-3 at bat with an RBI in the game at Fuessenich Park.

 

  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

Keep ReadingShow less
Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

Keep ReadingShow less