RECENT READING
BOOKS SET IN MAINE
Lily King is an award-winning novelist who happens to live in Portland, Maine. With that credential, she has written an engaging piece “Reading Your Way Through Maine” for the New York Times series focusing on literature from specific locales. Amongst her list of twenty titles, I was pleased to see familiar ones: from Elizabeth Stout’s Olive Kittredge to Landslide by Susan Conley, and More Than You Know by Beth Gutcheon, along with several by authors new to me. King also includes nonfiction titles and several popular children’s books, namely Blueberries for Sal and Miss Rumphius.
Appropriately, she doesn’t include her own fiction (not set in Maine), but I have thoroughly enjoyed Euphoria (loosely based on a young Margaret Mead and contemporaries), Writers & Lovers, and recently, the novel below.
A FATHER’S GRIP
Father of the Rain by Lily King
Published in 2010, King’s novel Father in the Rain, portrays daughter Daley’s decades-long struggle to be noticed and loved by her father. Charismatic and charming, Gardiner Amory is wedded to the bottle and is often hurtful and verbally abusive to his daughter and others. When Daley’s mother separates from her father, Daley spends weekends shuttling from home with her mother to her father’s chaotic household. Ki
Gardiner has remarried and has stepchildren. Daley must navigate, or at least survive, the ravages of this dysfunctional household each week. This is probably one of the most harrowing and painful sections of the book. Later, when everyone else seems to have deserted Gardiner, Daley returns to assist him, setting aside, temporarily she tells herself, her own life and love.
What do we owe our parents and what is the pull and attraction of the daughter-father bond? The writing is wonderfully graphic and descriptive, and the characters are believable, but I have to admit to becoming impatient with Daley—the sacrifices she makes, for what return? (~JWFarrington)
DINING OVER BOOTHBAY HARBOR
Located in downtown Boothbay Harbor overlooking the harbor and the footbridge, McSeagull’s offers a tempting menu of local seafood and fish. We brought our friend from Sweden here for lunch, and the guys began with cups of chowder. It looked very appetizing topped with some crispy bacon. Later, the Chief Penguin declared it the best clam chowder of the four iterations he’s sampled this season.
The C. P. and I had fried haddock with coleslaw and fries. Very fresh and lovely fish and a generous portion. (Someone I know took some home!) Our friend enjoyed some local oysters on the half shelf and sampled some of my haddock.
The porch overlooking the harbor is a most pleasant place to dine, but the inside seating is also bright and attractive. We’ve vowed to return at least once more this season!
Note: Photos except for author photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved) Header photo is Monks Cress.
