Sunday, October 9, 2011

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

I had a lot more hope for this book when I started it. It is essentially plotless, but is told in an interesting, winding way that draws you in and makes you really understand and relate to the characters...or know relatives who resemble them almost TOO closely. So the story goes that Alice, the matriarch, owns a house in Maine, a house that her husband won on a $50 bet. The husband, Daniel, died ten years prior to the telling of this story. Alice and Daniel had three children, two of who are mentioned significantly: Kathleen and Pat. Kathleen lives in California on her "farm" (a worm farm) with her boyfriend of ten years, Arlo. She has a daughter, Maggie, who lives in New York and is recently impregnated by her on-again, off-again loser boyfriend. Summer comes, and Maggie goes to the house in Maine to figure out life, and tells both Kathleen and Loser Boyfriend in an email she is preggo. In the meantime, Kathleen flies out to "talk some sense into her" aka have an abortion (which she doesn't have), and Loser Boyfriend decides to not be involved. While Kathleen is plotting to go to Maine, Ann Marie (Pat's wife) shows up with dollhouse-making supplies in tow. She has a crush on Steve Brewer, and eventually accidentally makes a drunken move on him in Maine on the Fourth of July. There is a whole lot of other things that happen, like finding out about Alice's sister's death...in the end, all four of the women have secrets, except maybe Kathleen, since it is plain she was not a great mother. I wouldn't really recommend...unless you have nothing better to read, I suppose. But it is definitely intricately written, and well-done, at that.

No comments:

Post a Comment