Review
Childhood typically includes a period
of sleepless nights and interrupted playtimes caused
by the fearful sense that monsters lurk under beds
or behind attic doors. Thankfully, this phobia
passes for most little ones as they mature and
monsters are relegated to movie screens or campfire
stories. By adulthood, monsters are pure fantasy –
hardly a subject of concern or any thought at all.
Not so in Lauren Groff's Templeton (modeled after
real life Cooperstown, New York) where monsters both real
and metaphorical are oddly prominent in daily adult
life. The metaphorical goblins are more menacing
than the fleshy ones, however; they slither and
hover in the form of family secrets, small town
prejudices, faulty assumptions and other ills of
human...
Beyond the Book
A Scenic Tour of Cooperstown,
New York
Though Groff's preface clearly
defines her book as a work of
fiction, she also admits that it
is a love story of sorts for her
childhood hometown of
Cooperstown, New York.
Cooperstown, a village in Otsego
County, has several claims to
fame, the most prominent of
which is the
National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In 1908, the seven-man Mills
Commission chose Cooperstown as
the site for the Hall of Fame.
The Mills Commission was formed
three years prior for the...
