Through a Ruby Window: A Martha’s Vineyard Childhood

Before geography lessons and off-island travel enlightened us, we children assumed that all people lived as we did. We thought the world was made up of islands, each having its own merry-go-round. What a pity we were wrong. So begins this collection of fifteen beautiful stories, each a window into Susan Klein’s distinctive experience growing up on Martha’s Vineyard. The island was then a sleepy community animated by the annual Bass and Bluefish Derby with its exaggerated fishing lore, full-day beach parties where family buried barrels of hot rocks, sausage, linguica, onions and seaweed in the sand to steam cookand the nation’s oldest merry-go-round, a creaking wonder of murals, glitter, and brass rings. In one story young Susan packs coffee and sugar with her mother to send to relatives in Germany while learning about life in the old country. In another, she walks barefoot through a raging thunderstorm with eccentric Aunt Fanny. At once funny, tender, and wise, these stories transport the readers to their own metaphorical islands.