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One in the Crown
Journeys series
Author: Michael Cunningham |
In this celebration of one of America’s
oldest towns (incorporated in 1720),
Cunningham brings us Provincetown, one
of the most idiosyncratic and extraordinary
towns in the United States, perched
on the sandy tip at the end of Cape
Cod.
Provincetown, eccentric, physically
remote, and heartbreakingly beautiful,
has been amenable and intriguing to
outsiders for as long as it has existed. “It
is the only small town I know of where
those who live unconventionally seem
to outnumber those who live within the
prescribed bounds of home and licensed
marriage, respectable job, and biological
children,” says Cunningham. “It
is one of the places in the world you
can disappear into. It is the Morocco
of North America, the New Orleans of
the north.”
He first came to the place more than
twenty years ago, falling in love with
the haunted beauty of its seascape and
the rambunctious charm of its denizens.
Although Provincetown is primarily known
as a summer mecca of stunning beaches,
quirky shops, and wild nightlife, as
well as a popular destination for gay
men and lesbians, it is also a place
of deep and enduring history, artistic
and otherwise. Few towns have attracted
such an impressive array of artists
and writers—from Tennessee Williams
to Eugene O’Neill, Mark Rothko
to Robert Motherwell—who, like
Cunningham, were attracted to this finger
of land because it was . . . different,
nonjudgmental, the perfect place to
escape to; to be rescued, healed, reborn,
or simply to live in peace. As we follow
Cunningham on his various excursions
through Provincetown and its surrounding
landscape, we are drawn into its history,
its mysteries, its peculiarities—places
you won’t read about in any conventional
travel guide.
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From Publishers Weekly
Cunningham (The Hours) takes the reader on a leisurely, idiosyncratic tour
of the fabled town at the tip of Cape Cod. He makes the rounds of his
favorite haunts, from the beaches, marshes and dunes to businesses like
the halfheartedly modernized Adams Pharmacy, which has a soda fountain
from the 1940s; the Marine Specialties store, a repository of the overlooked,
the lost, the surplus, the irregular, the no-longer-needed, and the outmoded;
and the Atlantic House, a bar that is sexy in a damp, well-used way. The
fish and whales that live in the ocean around the town have a place in
his excursion, as do the dogs, cats, skunks, opossums and occasional coyotes
that wander the streets. People interest him most, however: the old-timer
who sits in his yard, shouting, Hello hello hello, to everyone who passes
by; the disheveled man who walks the main street night and day; and the
more famous eccentrics, the refugees, rebels, and visionaries who have
been coming to the town for nearly 400 years. There is also a large gay
population, and Cunningham is especially fascinated by this community's
flamboyant individuals, who add color even to the local A&P. His quirky
guide, part of the Crown Journeys series, presents a very personal view
of Provincetown, but at the same time it manages to convey the peculiar,
inscrutable intensity characterizing the love so many people have for
the place.
© Cahners Business Information, Inc. |
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$ 16.95 (hardcover)
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