Pedro Giraudo, Aaron Halva and Jainardo Batista from Nu' Guajiro rocking the set in the bay window at Idlewild Books. Lots of delicious reading on the shelves behind.
The place filled up quickly, and I failed to take any more photographs once the mad signing of books had begun...The next day, suffering from a mild hangover, thanks to one too many of St. John Frizell's stellar mojitos, I high-tailed it north to Cambridge on the trusty Fung-Wah bus. Laura scooped me up in her pickup truck and we headed for Maine, where I read on Saturday at Gulf of Maine books in Brunswick, land of the flowing gray beard. Brunswick is sister city to Trinidad, Cuba, and I read about that city to a standing room only crowd, mostly drawn from the large local retiree community. I felt a bit silly reading my descriptions of the aged, septuagenarian bicycle agent who had helped me continue my journey by Flying Pigeon once I realized that the average age of the crowd was certainly above sixty, and possibly right up there in the seventies with Rigoberto, the character in question, but nobody seemed put out. Gulf of Maine is another great independent bookstore you should check out if you are in the area.
Ms. Harmon browses the design section at Gulf of Maine books
Poet and proprietor Gary Lawless and his beard
Frantic signing
Until I got to Maine I had been suffering under the sad self-delusion that I have actually grown a beard worth talking about. There were at least three resplendent heavy growths in the house that put my tatty reddish frizzle to shame. I promised to try harder for my next visit.All Maine photographs courtesy L. Harmon, except the one she is in
