A former Oak Parker whose critically acclaimed books have been selected for Oprah’s Book Club will speak at the River Forest library.
Jane Hamilton will read from and discuss her new book, “The Excellent Lombards,” May 22 at the River Forest Public Library. The library and River Forest Township jointly coordinated the event.
Carla Sloan, River Forest Township supervisor, said a township employee who went to Oak Park and River Forest High School with Hamilton reached out to her regarding a possible stop in River Forest.
“Sure enough, Jane was more than happy to come,” Sloan said. “It’s a real treat for us.”
Hamilton, the author of “A Map of the World” and “The Book of Ruth,” said her father was a longtime Oak Park Public Library board member, and she, too, served on her local library board for years.
“I’m indebted to libraries, so I’m always happy to be in libraries,” Hamilton said.
Thinking back on her youth in Oak Park, Hamilton recalled treasured children’s librarians at both the school and public libraries. In “The Excellent Lombards,” the main character’s mother is a librarian, Hamilton added.
Hamilton credits her own journalist mother, suffragette grandmother and generally bookish family with helping shape her as a writer, along with the “very rich world” she grew up in, enjoying the freedom to explore Oak Park and Chicago as a child.
“I got a lot of bookish love and attention,” she said.
Returning to the area will be emotional for Hamilton, who said goodbye to her childhood home in Oak Park when her mother moved to Evanston several years ago.
“Leaving Oak Park was very wrenching, even though we were so grown up,” she said.
Hamilton, who lives on an apple orchard in Wisconsin, said she’d been thinking about issues of succession with a family business — who stays, who goes, who ends up inheriting the business. “The Excellent Lombards” explores that topic from the point of view of a girl whose family owns an apple orchard.
“I put them in the body, the soul, of a child observing,” Hamilton said.
Although the experience of writing each of her books has been different — and one hasn’t necessarily prepared her to write the next — Hamilton said she typically writes several drafts.
“I wrote so many drafts, I can’t even tell you,” she said of her most recent novel.
Hamilton said she looks forward to connecting with readers in River Forest, as she often forgets how readers enlarge her own sense of her books, and appreciates that such events expose her to that.
“It’s wonderful to hear readers speak about the books,” she said. “It’s a privilege to be able to talk about the joys of reading.”
Mary Kay Stiff, head of adult services for the library, said officials anticipate a good-sized crowd for the Hamilton event.
“She’s definitely someone who has a big following, and she also happens to be local,” Stiff said.
Stiff said the event is first-come, first-serve, with a room capacity of 70 people.
“People might want to get here early,” she added.
The event begins at 2 p.m. May 22 at the River Forest Public Library, 735 Lathrop Ave. in River Forest. Copies of “The Excellent Lombards” will be available for purchase. For more information, visit www.riverforestlibrary.org.
Caitlin Mullen is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
