1001 Novels: A Library of America, Maine

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

Maine

   Susan Straight's 1001 Novels: A Library of America gives us a map of American fiction, with the avowed purpose of showing Americans both similarities and differences as a means to greater understanding between "red" and "blue" types of people.   I found the premise intriguing, especially since I substantively completed the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die project over the pandemic, and I've been casting about for a new project along those lines.  Ask and you shall receive!  I'm planning to consolidate the individual reviews in blocks of 50 separate by state, so this post will eventually contain Maine (24), Vermont (9) and New Hampshire (13).

Editor/creator Susan Straight had this to say about Maine:

Entering Maine, this place full of opaque beauty and deep belief, I read the men of Tinkers, set in West Cove, and The Poacher’s Son, in Spencer Lake. Two books that brought me to Maine when I was young: Carrie, by Stephen King, Lisbon Falls showing what intolerance can create, and The Beans of Egypt, Maine. Sarah Orne Jewett’s classic The Country of Pointed Firs, in South Berwick; indigenous history comes to life in Prayer of the Bone, in Machiasport. Two brilliant novels are Laurie Colwin’s sly comic portrait of love in Kennebunk, and darkly hilarious Olive Kitteridge in Crosby. In Cushing, Christina Baker Kline brings Wyeth paintings to brilliant light, Stern Men go to sea in Fort Niles; family secrets dominate Ayelet Waldman’s Red Hook and Roxana Robinson’s Blue Hill.

Here is my personal rankings of the 23 books from Maine:

1.   Tinkers (2009) by Paul Harding 

2. The Beans of Egypt,  Maine (1985) by Carolyn Chute *

3.  The Night of the Living Rez (2022)by Morgan Talty #  

4. Empire Falls (2001) by Richard Russo

5.Edinburgh (2001) by Alexander Chee  @

6. Olive Kitteridge(2008) by Elizabeth Strout

7. We Took to the Woods (1942) by Louise Dickinson Rich 

8. The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) by Sarah Orne Jewett

9.  A Piece of the World (2017) by Christine Baker Kline

10. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years (1929) by Rachel Field

11.  Carrie (1974) by Stephen King

12.  Chenoo (2016) by Joseph Bruchac #

13.  The Lowering Days (2021) by Gregory Brown

14.   The Northern Reach (2021)by W.S. Winslow

15.  Lungfish (2022) by Megan Gilliss

 16. Shine On, Bright & Dangerous Object (1975) by Laurie Colwin

17. Stern Men (2000) by Elizabeth Gilbert

18.  Cost (2008)  by Roxana Robinson

19. The Prayer of the Bone (1998) by Paul Bryers

20. Evenings (1998) by Susan Minot

21. Red Hook Road (2010) by Ayelet Waldman

22.  Oslo, Maine (2021)by Marcia Butler

23. The Poachers Son (2011) by Paul Doiron

 24. Boar Island (2016) by Nevada Barr

# Native American author

* Socio-economic diversity

@ LGBTQ author

 The hits for me were the Native American authored titles (2) and the Pulitzer Prize winners (3). The mid range is occupied by works of historical significance, popular hits that I also enjoyed and some of the better but lesser known works of literary fiction.  The bottom group are genre books- specifically detective fiction and unsuccessful commercial fiction titles.   Maine places a strong second to Massachusetts's in terms of representation in the 1001 Novels: A Library of America project within New England.   Massachusetts, a state with a major literary history, a major city and nearly seven times the population only has roughly twice as many books on the list, which suggests that Maine may turn out to be one of the most overrepresented states in terms of population per title on the list, 56 thousand people per title.

  I think if I was going to make suggestions for a revised list, I would recommend substituting Charlotte's Web by E.B. White for Hitty and taking out one of the detective novels (Boar Island, ideally) and replacing it with Arundel by Kenneth Thomas.  Last suggestion would be to make room for The Arrest by Jonathan Lethem, perhaps by taking out Red Hook Road.

  One missing voice I'd identify is that of late 19th century and early 20th century immigrants from places like Acadia (Quebec/French Canada), Italy and Scandinavia who either worked in the now-vanished deep water fishing industry or the quarries- which also went under in the mid 20th century.   There are hints of these characters in some of the books- Italian immigrants play a role in Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert and there are some French/Acadian character scattered through a couple of the more recent books but there are no books written from the perspectives of those people and it's unclear as you tool around Maine today, what happened to those people, exactly, despite the fact that some 30 percent of the population claims some French Canadian descent.   Based on the books on the Maine list, you would expect Maine to be about 25% "summer people" or their children, 65% working class white people, 10% Native American.