Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine: A Novel

not a great developed story

Hard time "getting into this book"

ok - not as expected

For those of us in our sixties now, our memories of the 1960's are no doubt vivid. If you are one of these people, this novel by Ann Hood will be a real treat. Like me, you will recognize the characters because you and your friends were not much different. Poignant and hard-hitting, Off the Coast of Maine is a fine book! Enjoy!

This book has a lot of interesting characters that it tells about in short bursts of vignettes. The story focuses on three female college students in the 1960s: Suzanne, who rebels against her prim and proper upbringing by running off with a poor poet; Elizabeth, who rebels by choosing to live a responsible life true to her ideals of peace, vegetarianism and ecology; and Claudia, who's just wild and rebellious, period. Unfortunately, each of these women suffers a tragedy. Suzanne's relationship breaks up when she refuses to have an abortion and, cut off from her family support, she becomes a struggling single mom with a daughter who doesn't understand her. Claudia loses a child and loses some of her sanity as a result. Elizabeth gets cancer and also has a daughter, Rebekah, who rejects her ideals and is embarrassed by her "hippie" parents.

Hood's prose is spare, yet descriptive and is very pleasant to read, yet if you stop to think deeply about what you're reading you begin to wonder about it. For example, the descriptions of Suzanne working hard all day to be the top performer in a business management position, then picking up her baby daughter from day care and going home to work on restoring an old house all evening, simply doesn't ring true. No woman could keep up that superhuman effort on all fronts for as long as Suzanne apparently does to become a success. I also wondered why her daughter didn't seem to have any sense of how hard Suzanne had had to work to look after her - could a kid really be that un-aware? The story would have made more sense if Suzanne had cast herself back on her disapproving parents' doorstep. Elizabeth also manages to make her "ideals" look pretty unattractive and viewed through the eyes of a young teenager one ends up sympathizing a lot with Rebekah. An overarching question is why Hood would choose to so severely punish each of these girls for the choices they made when young. Surely one of them could have had a relatively happy life; as such, the book, with the exception of Rebekah's hopeful story, ends up being a pretty big downer.

I have read her previous books and they were great, but this book lost me half way. Writing is a bit hard to follow and uninteresting.

This book is an easy one to read a few pages at a time, set it down, and pick up later. I enjoyed it but wouldn't read it again.

Great reading. Thank you!

Not the best by this author but be sure to read her other books. You won't be disappointed.

Easy read, interesting characters, rang true,