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Spring 2021 Review

It’s Not About the Dog

In this debut novel by Cree LeFavour ’88, a couple contemplates the future of their marriage as they experience infidelity, loneliness, and loss over the course of one hot, steamy summer.

By Blair Kloman, MA English ’94
May 24, 2021
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When we first meet Alice, she has blanketed her Upper East Side neighborhood with $2,000-reward posters for her missing dachshund-Chihuahua mutt, Maebelle. But Alice seems to have lost more than her dog.

Her grown twins have left home for college in California, her husband Peter is packing for a Memorial Day weekend in the Hamptons without her, and the grant application to fund her work as a biophysicist studying the murmuration of starlings has sat untouched for months.

Such is the start of summer for Alice in Private Means, a debut novel by Cree LeFavour ’88. Though this is her first work of fiction, LeFavour is known for a series of award-winning cookbooks as well as her incisive 2017 memoir, Lights On, Rats Out.

“She’d lost track of herself entirely in becoming a thing she’d never dreamed she’d be,” LeFavour writes of Alice. Whether that thing is being a mother, a wife, or an unhappy person, Alice never quite clarifies. We know more about the designers Alice wears—the Stella McCartney jumpsuit, the Emile Pucci bikini, and the La Perla lingerie set—than the waiflike woman who inhabits them.

LeFavour offers alternating narratives from Alice and from Peter, almost as if it’s the conversation they can’t seem to have. Instead, Alice has an impulsive one-night stand that she imagines into a full-fledged relationship before realizing that the man is not at all interested—another disappointment. And Peter becomes dangerously close to acting on a puerile fantasy with a particularly vulnerable patient. They have their lonely interpretations of what’s happening to them as a couple, their separate reckless actions, and their predictably consequent angst.

Throughout the summer, they visit friends and family as they make the weekend rounds escaping from the city. They even visit central Vermont, and LeFavour sneaks in a reference to the much-loved local “creeme,” which will no doubt delight her fellow alumni enthusiasts as much as it fosters the ongoing arguments over its correct spelling.

It’s finally a close friend and fellow psychiatrist who helps Peter, and eventually Alice, step away from their self-propelled solitude and begin to empathize with what the other might be feeling. It’s a slow start to healing and, at last, more than a little hopeful.

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Recent Stories

Features

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In a critically acclaimed work of nonfiction, Abe Streep '04 introduces readers to the Arlee Warriors, a high school basketball team on a Native American reservation in Montana, where life's challenges are abundant.

By Alexander Wolff
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Munya Munyati Has A Few Stories to Tell

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By Mara Dolan
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Reverberations

A transcontinental move, a career discovered, a landmark speech studied and translated—and an identity reshaped.

By Clara Clymer, MA Translation '22
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April 2, 2022

The Road(s)

A little over a year ago, a writing student headed south to Florida for no other reason than J-Term was forced to go remote. She soon found herself reporting on an environmental justice battle that was roiling the state.

By Alexandra Burns '21.5
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Dispatches

A Night Out

For one evening in December, Atwater dining hall hosted a student-dining experience unlike any other.

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What happens when your identity is stolen—not by another person but by your own body?

By Sara Thurber Marshall
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A Natural Selection

For more than a quarter century, Stephen Trombulak— now an emeritus professor of biology and environmental studies—guided students in avian research on a parcel of College land hard by Otter Creek. This preserved area now bears his name.

By Jessie Raymond '90
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The Utterly Fascinating Life of Howie McCausland

He saves lives. He brought the Internet to Middlebury. He has a degree in astrophysics. And he loves to fish. Yes, this is a true story.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by John S. Dykes
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It’s a New Day at the Museum of Art

Reimagining what an art museum can and should be.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Art courtesy of the Middlebury College Museum of Art
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First Aid

Their projects span the globe—from Kenya to Haiti to the United States. As the 2021-22 academic year came to a close, a cohort of students gathered to discuss what having a social impact really means.

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The Case of the Purloined Onions

Onions have been disappearing from Middlebury's garden. Now, a team of undergraduate sleuths are honing in on a lineup of suspects.

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Poetry, In Exile

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Pursuits

Public Defender

On becoming one of the country's foremost cybersecurity experts.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by Neil Webb
April 14, 2022

Q&A

The Making of a Teacher

Hebrew Professor Michal Strier reflects on her life an education—in Israel and the States—a journey that led the Language School instructor to the undergraduate College for the first time this year.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Paul Dahm
May 19, 2022

Editor’s Note

A Brilliant Fogg

Saying goodbye to a dear colleague and friend.

By Matt Jennings
Illustration by Jody Hewgill
February 25, 2020

Old Chapel

Making Democracy Real

An Update on Our Conflict Transformation Initiative

By Laurie L. Patton
Illustration by Montse Bernal
January 20, 2023

Road Taken

What to Wear Now

Through accrued life experiences, a writer discovers that a common question has become a statement of identity.

By Samantha Hubbard Shanley ’99
Illustration by Naomi Clarke
March 11, 2021

Quotation

A summer immersed in a language can do wonders, as veterans of Middlebury College’s famous language-learning program can attest. The lockdown is clearly going to amount to the equivalent of about two summers, and there are mini-Middleburys happening in millions of houses worldwide.”

—John McWhorter, writing “The Coronavirus Generation Will Use Language Differently” in the Atlantic.

Podcasts

Alone Together, Ep. 9 with Jessica St. Clair ’98 and Dan O’Brien ’96

Dan O'Brien ’96, a playwright and poet, and Jessica St. Clair ’98, a comedian and writer, join President Patton for our final check in with the community during COVID-19 self-isolation. Dan and Jessica are a true power couple in the arts that met in a Middlebury improv group. They discuss Dan's magazine essay "Life Shrinks: Lessons from Chemo Quarantine," how reopening the country feels a lot like remission, and how their art is evolving to reflect the pandemic.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 15, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 8 with Dick Clay, Covid-19 Survivor

In this episode, Dick Clay, a student at the Bread Loaf School of English, shares his story of recovering from COVID-19. Dick discusses when the seriousness of the virus hit him, the "wilderness path to recovery," and how he will process this experience through writing.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 8, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 7 with Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, Essential Workers

In this episode, we hear from Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, who have been working with custodial services to keep our Vermont campus safe and clean. Jodie and Jacque share what campus has been like since the students left: what it's like to schedule hourly sanitation of buildings, how every day feels like an empty Saturday morning, and that the infamous Middlebury squirrels have lost a bit of weight.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Photography by Bob Handelman
June 1, 2020

Review

Success Story

A book detailing the history of U.S. Olympic women cross-country skiers brings to light the decades of grit and determination it took to finally bring home a gold medal.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photos courtesy U.S. Ski and Snowboard
January 20, 2023

How Did You Get Here?

Megan Job

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Leif Taranta

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Mikayla Haefele

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Videos

Pomp and Unusual Circumstances

As viewed from above.

By Chris Spencer
June 1, 2021

Davis the Owl Returns Home

Having recovered from life-threatening injuries, a beautiful winged creature is released to its natural habitat.

By Andrew Cassell
April 22, 2021

In the Blink of an Eye

Gone in less than a minute—the middle of June 2019 to the middle of June 2020, as viewed from the rooftop of the Mittelman Observatory.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Video by Jonathan Kemp/Mittelman Observatory
June 10, 2020
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