Working Waterfront

Lucy at sea in pandemic times

Lucy is back in New York City after several trips with William, her ex- and the father of their two grown daughters. It is March of 2020. SEE MORE

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Girl from the hill country makes good

Though Rockefeller’s life had ranged from West Virginia to Connecticut, where he mother had remarried, and then to Michigan, a twist brought her to Maine. SEE MORE

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The full Nelson

Nelson’s riff on the Cape Racer sled is equally memorable. The sound of it sliding prompts him to consider “a hidden extinction,” namely, “the lost sounds familiar in former times.” SEE MORE

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Meanwhile, down on the gentleman’s farm…

Barrette’s knowledge of garden vegetables, fruits, and flowers is not that of recently retired hobbyist. Though born in the U.S. in 1897, he was raised in England, and much of his understanding of farm life seems to have come from that upbringing. SEE MORE

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A radio reporter’s bad static

Where Gillian Burnes got the name “Coralie Threlfell” for the narrator of her novel, Soft Features, I don’t know. But it rings exactly true for a public radio reporter. SEE MORE

A copy of "Monhegan Stories," courtesy Monhegan Museum of Art & History.

Working Waterfront

A Monhegan media montage, circa 1900

A story of romance. A list of plants. A mash-up of fact and fiction about Monhegan Island’s people and places circa 1900. These and more are what is within a handmade, leather-bound book that is now part of the Monhegan Museum of Art & History’s collection. The book of about… SEE MORE

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Beyond the illusion

The Midcoast By Adam White (Random House Books, 2022) Review by Tina Cohen Adam White’s debut novel, The Midcoast, is set in Damariscotta, a town familiar to him from his childhood. This is contemporary Maine, with a close-up look at several families, including Andrew’s, who is the book’s narrator, and… SEE MORE

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The perils of love and lobstering

Maiden Cove: A Novel By Roy Knight (2020) Review by Dana Wilde Roy Knight grew up just about a stone’s throw from Maiden Cove, right on the channel into Portland Harbor between Cape Elizabeth and Cushing Island. As a teenager in the mid-1960s, he learned lobstering in that channel from… SEE MORE

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The view of Maine from the reservation

Night of the Living Rez: Stories By Morgan Talty, Tin House (2022) Review by Tina Cohen When I started reading Morgan Talty’s debut book, Night of the Living Rez, I saw it as a “coming of age” story, with its focus on a few teenage boys, Native American, growing up… SEE MORE

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Going deep on Russian lit

Monkey: A Russian Novel By Agnes Bushell; Littoral Books, 2022 Review by Dana Wilde Agnes Bushell’s latest novel Monkey is in some ways a very conventional and in other ways a very peculiar book. We’ll get to the peculiarity in a moment (note the subtitle, “A Russian Novel”), but meanwhile… SEE MORE