Union Atlantic and Strawberry Rhubarb Compote

I am in a springy mood!  I will be honest, the strawberry rhubarb compote I made this week really has nothing to do with Adam Haslett's Union Atlantic.  It was a great book (with a bit of a slow start) about three really messed up people and how their lives unexpectedly intersect.  It is also to some extent about the financial crisis and how it happened.  I was stumped when it was time to come up with a dish that was inspired by the book.  But, it being May,  I was inspired by the beautiful spring ingredients in the stores and also by mothers day.   So I decided to make my Mom's stewed strawberry rhubarb stuff (she never called it compote, but seems like a good name for it).  She made it every spring  and we ate it with dinner like a vegetable.  Unfortunately, I don't have a recipe for it and unfortunately never got a chance to make it with her.  I knew it must be simple since it was a weeknight thing she threw together.  I remember coming into the kitchen filled with a sweet strawberry smell tinged with something a little sour and different - the rhubarb, which turned stringy when cooked.   I tried to make this before last year but it was nothing like my Mom's - I cooked it too long and it was sticky and heavy like jam rather than light and refreshing.  This time I cooked it for less time and added less water, and it came out just right.   This is a quick and simple recipe and a great way in my opinion to use some spring rhubarb without putting in the effort to make a pie.  I eat it as is but it also would be great with yogurt, ice cream, stirred into a pound cake or cheesecake. 

When I read the reviews of Adam Haslett's Union Atlantic, they often labeled the novel to be a book about the current financial crisis.  I found that while a bank's epic-sized bad gamble was a big part of the book, that was not really what the book was about.  I would say the book was about isolation and how people deal with isolation from others.  The three main characters in the book are all deeply troubled and alone in the world. The novel starts by introducing us to Doug Fanning, the central character, when he is in the Navy in the Middle East during the nineties.  Fanning left home at 18 and joined the Navy, never telling his alcoholic mother he was going.   This first chapter is a whopper, telling the story of how Fanning basically shot down a civilian plane during the Iran/Iraq war.  He ends up getting some sort of medal for this, and returns to the U.S. to pursue his dream - banking.  Fanning ends up working for a Boston based bank that is the creation of its megalomaniac founder, Jeffrey Holland.   We meet Fanning again as he is building a McMansion in an affluent Boston suburb, which is right next to the poor town he grew up in.  Fanning is a cool character - handsome, extremely fit, sharply dressed and totally focused on work.  I pictured Patrick Bateman (the character in American Pyscho, perfectly brought to life by Christian Bale).  He has no real personal relationships - his best friend is his lawyer and he has a no strings attached sexual relationship with his secretary.  Fanning has little redeeming qualities and seems to be a deeply troubled - he still hasn't spoken to his mother, he has dreams about his actions in the Middle East, but on the surface is all cool aggressive banker.  His boss gives him free range to try to make money for the bank any way he can, and Doug uses this freedom by taking many liberties and bending or ignoring the law when he can.   It is obvious from the start that the house of cards will fall, we are just not sure exactly how and when it will happen.   Charlotte Graves is an old blue blood woman who lives next to Doug's newly built McMansion.  She is an old school New England wasp who is offended to her core by Doug's showy new richness.  The land Doug's McMansion is built on used to be owned by her father, but was conveyed in trust to the town to be a nature preserve.  The town sold it to Fanning, and Charlotte commences a lawsuit, acting as her own attorney, to try to get the land back.  Charlotte is eccentric - she lives alone with two large dogs, her house is literally falling down, and she was fired from her job as a teacher in the town schools for sharing her radical political views.  Haslett gives us the full background stories of the characters mainly through their own musings and memories.  With Charlotte, we learn that although she never married, she was once in a relationship with a troubled young philosopher who dies of a drug overdose.  Charlotte never had another relationship and never really got over it.  Eventually Charlotte's only companions, her two dogs, start speaking to her in human voices - one is the minister Cotton Mather and the other Malcolm X.  I did not love the parts of the book that turned into dialogues between Charlotte and the dogs - they were a bit of a drag to get through.  The third main character of the book is Nate, a directionless high school senior who comes to Charlotte for tutoring for his AP history exam.  Nate is also deeply damaged - his father committed suicide, he is alienated from his grieving mother, he has not applied to college, and he and his friends smoke pot every night.   Although it becomes clear to Nate that Charlotte is not really tutoring him for his exam but rather just ranting and raving on whatever topic suits her, he dutifully shows up for his tutoring sessions and becomes an important human connection for Charlotte.  Poor Nate also becomes involved with Doug Fanning - first by sneaking into his nearly empty McMansion to look around.  Nate quickly becomes infatuated with Fanning and the two of them begin a deeply troubled relationship - Fanning taking advantage of Nate's neediness and love.  As Fanning's bank shenanigans start to head towards collapse, another character comes into play - Charlotte's brother Henry Graves, who happens to be the head of the New York Fed.  To me this connection seems a bit far-fetched (another connection like this is that Nate's good friend is the son of Fanning's boss, the head of Union Atlantic) , but, so be it.  Henry, a widower who is worried about but loves his eccentric sister, comes into the story both to intervene in Charlotte's lawsuit and to rescue Fanning's bank when one of his gambles goes horribly wrong.  Henry is an extremely principled and honest man, and he becomes the vehicle Haslett uses to moralize about the financial crisis and its causes.  Towards the end, the book becomes suspenseful - how spectacularly will Fanning fall and when will his schemes be discovered by the authorities?  The book started slow for me - when we were learning everyone's back story, but became really riveting about half way through.  A financial crisis story certainly drives the plot along here, but what the book is really about is these three deeply unhappy people.  A bit of a downer but a great read.

MOM'S STRAWBERRY RHUBARB COMPOTE

This couldn't be simpler.
Ingredients:
3 cups rhubarb, sliced
3 cups strawberries, cut in half or quarters, depending on size
2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup sugar (or less, depending on your taste)
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Directions: Put the cut up strawberries and rhubarb in a saucepan. Add sugar, water, and lemon zest.  Put heat on medium low and let cook till the strawberries and rhubarb break down.  The rhubarb will get stringy.  This should take about 5-9 minutes.  The desired consistency is soupy not sticky like jam.  If you keep cooking it will turn into jam.  Take it off the stove and let cool.  Serve at room temp or cold.