Review: Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

Author: J. Courtney Sullivan
Publisher Format: Knopf (2011), Hardcover, 400 pages
.....also audio - Books on Tape, 17 hours, 14 minutes
Narrator: Ann Marie Lee
Subject: Irish Catholic dysfunctional family relations
Setting: Boston, Ogunquit Maine
Genre: fiction
Source: public library audio download

This is not a novel about Maine, although the gorgeous beaches of Ogunquit form a backdrop for most of the story. It is a story of the Kelleher family, Irish Catholics who hailed from Boston and summered in Maine.  The matriarch Alice, is a recovering alcoholic, tautly holding on to every piece of tradition and superstition she inherited from her family, the Church, and society in general. 

The story gives us a summer when three generations-- mother, daughters (and daughter-in-law), granddaughters-- come together in bursting clashes of culture, expectations and memories of unhappiness past.  This is a family that takes the words dysfunction and grudge to new heights.  Alice is a grande dame who is epic in her ability to ignore everyone else around her. Since her husband died, she has returned to her alcoholic past.  Daughter Kathleen, who lives (in the unholy state of sin) with her partner in California raising worms for their excrement, has vowed never to interact with the family or set foot in Maine again.  She comes however in response to her daughter Maggie's cry for psychological help in the midst of a crisis with her own relationship.

The apple-polishing daughter-in-law, who fawns over Alice in hopes of inheriting the compound, is a personality guaranteed to produce finger-on-the-chalkboard chills in all who must interact with her.  Each woman has a secret she is holding onto.  Each woman holds a grudge that is standing in the way of growing.

It's a dazzling, bold, deeply involved novel in which the characters are well drawn, the individual stories and secrets crawl to a rather transparent (to the reader anyway) conclusion.  It is summer reading at its best.   As an audio, it's very well done. If  had one gripe, it's that the blurb doesn't really match the story.  Just ignore the jacket and read the book.  I was actually able to get the audio before I was able to get the print copy from the library. It's one that is going into my permanent collection shortly.

No matter your preferred format, don't miss it!

May Wrap-Up

Whew!  what a month. I feel almost as if I accomplished nothing in the realm of reading, but I did have a great visit with mom, the kids, the grand daughter (what a delight she is), and also got to see all three of my sisters.

I did manage to complete the 75 books in 2010 challenge on LibraryThing.com - 7 months early, so that counts.  And I certainly hauled in a lot of new books, even thought they're technically 'on loan' from my sister Cheli.  So what's the count?


I read 4, abandoned 2 (one so bad I didn't even bother to blog it), and listened to 4 others.  I guess 8 books is not a bad count considering that I was definitely otherwise occupied for 10 of those thirty days.

I do have every intention  of getting back in the saddle for June and July to clear out ARCs.  I spent 4 hours yesterday cleaning out my blog feeder and catching up on reading all of your posts.  I did ruthlessly delete those blogs that hadn't posted something I was interested in for at least 90 days---sorry, but I figure if I only give a book 50-60 pages to grab me, then 90 days is more than enough for a blog.  I entered a lot of contests, and posted a boatload over on the giveaway sidebar, so be sure to get those entries in.

I still have to finish A Separate Country for this month's book club, I want to continue my president's bio reading a little each week (I just started "The Last Founding Father") by Harold Unger and I have to read a book by Nancy Pickard for the mystery book club the end of June.  So I'm setting my goal for June to finish:

The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw
Exit Music by Ian Rankin
A Dog About Town by J.F.Englert
Happy Hour by Michele Scott
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Sol
The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer (the man was nice enough to send me an autographed copy - you'd think I could get to it!!!)
The Executor by Jesse Kellerman

As soon as the smoke in the air (from the Canadian brush fires) clears, the deck beckons...