• Contact Us
  • Events calendar
Entering Swellesley
Pinnacle, Wellesley

The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

  • Advertise
  • Contribute
  • Eat
  • Wellesley Square
  • School news
  • Private schools, sponsored by Riverbend
  • Camp
  • Kids
  • Top 10 things to do
  • Business news
  • Embracing diversity
  • Seniors
  • Letters to the editor
  • Guidelines for letters to the editor
  • Fire & police scanner
  • Worship
  • Deland, Gibson Insurance Athlete of the Week
  • Raiders sports schedules & results
  • Live gov’t meetings
  • 2023 Town Election
  • Events
  • About us
  • Natick Report
 
Needham Bank, Wellesley
Write Ahead, Wellesley

What Wellesley is reading, a book list and reviews

The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander

The Light of the World, A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander

The list of the author’s accomplishments is long: Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet, Yale professor, composer of “Praise Song for the Day,” which she recited at President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, mother, and wife. When her husband, a trim, 50 year-old health-conscious chef and artist, dies suddenly of cardiac arrest, leaving her a widow and their two children without their father, Alexander is plunged into shock and grief as she mourns the loss of their love which “began in an instant and progressed inevitably.”

Although a sobering reality, yet this 200-page memoir is not a walk through the valley of the shadow of death. It is instead a written still life of what she and her husband, Ficre, a man who was “profoundly peaceful and peace-loving,” created through their shared commitment to marriage, family, friends, and a conscious way of living. Her writing is full of images of the Eritrean food Ficre created in his New Haven restaurant, the art he created in his studio, gardens and poetry, books and music. It’s a life that revels in the kind of luxury that comes not from purchasing power but from two people practicing their own enjoyment and idea of what it is that constitutes life’s deep pleasures.

Alexander knows how to bend the language to her purposes, letting the reader into her life, but only so far. It’s not an orgy of oversharing, nor a demand for pity. Like a poem, the reader becomes privy to bits and pieces of a whole, a glimpse at days they shared that Alexander says she can “only call divine.” Perhaps the clearest picture that comes through is of  a partnership that worked, and a suggestion of the secret sauce for its success: “Each of us made it possible for the other. We got something done. Each believed in the other unsurpassingly.”

Read The Light of the World and visit, “a house where the piano was played, a house where we sometimes read poetry at the dinner table…” a place where the inhabitants loved living in an organized and open way that always welcomed family and friends, yet where the author hopes that “noone is fooled by my competence.”

Advertisements:

Linden Square, Wellesley
EXPLO, Wellesley
Wellesley Hills Junior Women's Club

Tip us off…

Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

Advertisements

Wellesley Square, Wellesley Merchants
Wellesley, Jesamondo
Beacon Hill Athletic Club, Wellesley
Fay School, Southborough
Sexton test prep
Feldman Law
Wellesley Theatre Project
Volvo
Cheesy Street Grill
Mature Caregivers
Admit Fit, Wellesley
charles river chamber
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Never miss a post with our free daily Swellesley Report email
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

You can subscribe for free, though we appreciate any contribution that supports our independent journalism.

Most Read Posts

  • Sign up now for summer camp in Wellesley (and beyond)
  • Letters to the editor on The Swellesley Report
  • Voting rights expert to give talk at Wellesley College
  • Wellesley business buzz: La Toscana's, Express Gourmet to serve alcohol; Where the town banks (not SVB!)
  • Wellesley Public Schools news: Union issues vote of no confidence as negotiations continue; DE&I director ditches 'interim' tag; 'Emotional Lives of Teens' program

Click on Entering Natick sign to read our Natick Report

Entering Natick road sign

Upcoming Events

Mar 23
9:00 am - 10:30 pm

Select Board office hours

Mar 23
11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Wellesley Neighbors information session

Mar 23
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Babson Arts presents “The Forgotten Kingdom”

Mar 25
7:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The Lightning Thief, The Percy Jackson Musical

Mar 26
10:00 am - 10:30 am

6th annual “Plunge for Elodie”

View Calendar

Popular pages

  • Wellesley’s 2023 Boston Marathon charity runners
  • Wellesley’s 7 official scenic roads

Recent Comments

  • J covino on Wellesley High parents pan standards-based grading, school leaders say improvements planned
  • LADY WELLESLEY on Wellesley High parents pan standards-based grading, school leaders say improvements planned
  • Michali Lerner on Wellesley High School hosting standards-based grading discussion
  • Bob Brown on Wellesley Business Buzz: New version of E.A. Davis about to open; Faherty to nestle in next to Lululemon; Changing cast of characters in Lower Falls
  • Trudy Riley on Wellesley Business Buzz: New version of E.A. Davis about to open; Faherty to nestle in next to Lululemon; Changing cast of characters in Lower Falls

Links we like

  • Danny's Place
  • Great Runs
  • Jack Sanford: Wellesley's Major League Baseball Star
  • Tech-Tamer
  • The Wellesley Wine Press
  • Universal Hub
  • Wellesley Sports Discussion Facebook Group

Categories

  • 2021 Town Election (24)
  • 2023 Town Election (13)
  • Animals (429)
  • Antiques (49)
  • Art (596)
  • Beyond Wellesley (53)
  • Books (380)
  • Business (1,568)
  • Camp (12)
  • Careers/jobs (53)
  • Churches (82)
  • Clubs (241)
  • Construction (301)
  • Dump (131)
  • Education (3,218)
    • Babson College (252)
    • Bates Elementary School (18)
    • Dana Hall School (37)
    • Fiske Elementary School (11)
    • Hardy Elementary School (48)
    • Hunnewell Elementary School (47)
    • MassBay (57)
    • Schofield Elementary School (26)
    • Sprague Elementary School (19)
    • St. John School (2)
    • Tenacre Country Day School (11)
    • Upham Elementary School (35)
    • Wellesley College (615)
    • Wellesley High School (1,008)
    • Wellesley Middle School (208)
  • Embracing diversity (97)
  • Entertainment (823)
  • Environment (779)
  • Fashion (145)
  • Finance (15)
  • Fire (174)
  • Food (360)
  • Fundraising (649)
  • Gardens (165)
  • Government (625)
    • 2020 Town Election (47)
    • 2022 Town Election (15)
  • Health (870)
    • COVID-19 (203)
  • Hikes (6)
  • History (403)
  • Holidays (442)
  • Houses (164)
  • Humor (47)
  • Kids (869)
  • Law (8)
  • Legal notices (10)
  • Letters to the Editor (89)
  • Media (72)
  • METCO (4)
  • Military (13)
  • Morses Pond (109)
  • Music (584)
  • Natick Report (30)
  • Neighbors (282)
  • Obituaries & remembrances (86)
  • Outdoors (658)
  • Parenting (63)
  • Police (786)
    • Crime (398)
  • Politics (560)
  • POPS Senior Profile (10)
  • RDF (7)
  • Real estate (348)
  • Religion (139)
  • Restaurants (345)
  • Safety (156)
  • Scouts (2)
  • Seniors (128)
  • Shopping (164)
  • Sponsored (6)
  • Sports (1,024)
    • Athlete of the Week (14)
  • STEM (109)
  • Technology (165)
  • Theatre (397)
  • Town Meeting (26)
  • Transportation (242)
  • Travel (17)
  • Uncategorized (1,245)
  • Volunteering (351)
  • Weather (180)
  • Wellesley Election 2019 (21)
  • Wellesley Free Library (282)
  • Wellesley Holiday Gift Guide (2)
  • Wellesley's Wonderful Weekend (20)

© 2023 The Swellesley Report
Site by Tech-Tamer · Login