Maine (Litterature & Documents)

by J. Courtney Sullivan

[ibeforem]

When I was offered an ARC of this book through Amazon, I jumped on it immediately. I grew up in Maine, and I couldn’t think of a better book to take with me on my summer vacation.

I couldn’t have been more right.

This book touches on a lot of subjects: family when it works, and when it doesn’t; faith; relationships; guilt; entitlement; the inability to let go. It’s all explored through the eyes of four women in the Kelleher family – Alice, the matriarch; Kathleen, the oldest daughter; Ann Marie, the dutiful daughter-in-law; and Maggie, the grand-daughter contemplating a major life change.

Not all of these women are likeable. In fact, sometimes you just want to grab them and shake some sense into them. They all have their issues, their blind spots, and their history, and they’ve learned the family dance, where you pretend things are rosy and fine and then go about your real business. Unless you’re Alice; Alice never pretends things are rosy and fine.

Alice is really from Massachusetts, but in many ways she is the quintessential no-nonsense old lady from Maine. She takes no shit from anyone, and is staunch in her beliefs.

It did take most of the book before all of the women are in Maine together, but I was so absorbed in their stories, I didn’t care.

I loved what this book had to say about the difficulty of relationships between women in a family. It’s not always a pretty picture, but you do what you have to do. There was some strife in my extended family during the time I was reading this, and instead of it turning me off the book, the book helped me put things in perspective.

This has been my favorite book of the summer. I was so pleased with it, I immediately passed it on to my own mother. I hope she enjoys it too!