This week, I found “Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly” by Marie Bostwick was both thought-provoking and heartwarming.
As the title says, Esme Cahill has had some spectacular failures, but it takes her a long time to see the value in every failure. The story moves between 1942 and the early 2000s, revealing the lives of Esme’s grandparents, her mother, Robyn, Esme and their friends.
Adele Massel was born with synesthesia, a condition that causes emotions to appear as colors and flavors. She’s never been good with words but has plenty of art talent. She longs to become a well-known painter but must take low level government job to get by.
In 1942, World War II began, and the government decided to move some priceless art pieces to the Biltmore estate in Asheville, North Carolina. Adele is sent to oversee their care under the ruse of cataloging the current Biltmore art collection. At night, she paints in her small boarding house room.
During this time, she meets George Cahill. A heart murmur kept him from serving in the military, so he works in a local dairy.
George is a big man. Adele is petite. He is content. She is driven. The one thing they do share a passion for reading. Eventually, they do marry and, after a stint in Baltimore, George fulfills his dreams by buying a large parcel of land on the lake where he builds several tidy cabins.
Soon they host vacationers, hunters and anglers. Over the years, the lodge becomes a popular place, and the cabins grow to 18. That’s joined by a small restaurant and a game room. Adele gave up on becoming a painter but channeled her talents into making amazing abstract quilts that she kept packed away.
She focused on raising their daughter, Robyn, the rebellious teenager who ran away and with whom they had no contact until social services called to ask if they would take custody of Robyn’s daughter Esme (Esmerelda). Adele welcomed the 10-year-old and won her over by offering a slice of caramel cake.
Over the years, Esme nursed a strong resentment for her mother, so when Robyn was able to join the family, Esme decided to move to New York and seek her fortune as a writer. Once there, she found a starter job at a publishing firm and made friends with the irrepressible Yolonda.
As Esme worked her way up, she fell in love, married and quickly divorced. Just when she thought she’d get a shot of editing for a once-famous author, Adele dies and Esme is abruptly fired — more items on Esme’s long list of failures.
It takes a few more twists and turns, but in the end Esme finally sees that some of our greatest successes can’t take place unless we have a few spectacular failures to go with them.
AT A GLANCE
Book: “Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly”
Author: Marie Bostwick
Publisher: William Morrow
Year published: 2023
Number of pages: 368
Esme Cahill can’t seem to cut a break
