1,001 Novels: Northern New England - Maine, New Hampshire & Vermont

 1,001 Novels: Northern New England - Maine, New Hampshire & Vermont

     I'm about fifty books deep in the 1,0001 Novels: A Library of America, and this is the first completed region- let's call it Northern New England.  No big cities in this portion- the cities that do exist would be called towns in other parts of the country, and many of the books are either set in very small towns, rural areas or vacation spots.  Lots of family dysfunction, which I'm guessing will be everywhere you go.  Not much minority representation- but plenty of women, often single, often sad.

    This being an occasion for reflecting on the experience of reading 1,001 Novels, the predominant theme is family dysfunction written from the perspective of a woman.  It was good to see some Native perspectives, since, otherwise we are talking about a mostly white perspective- diversity in this area is typically represented as Catholics and French Canadian migrants from the early 20th century.   Class differences are a frequent theme- although here I suspect Northern New England is similar to the picks from other parts of the United States.  Editor Susan Straight didn't seem so interested in the New England Boarding School Milieu- no The World According to Garp or Rules of Attraction, which really seemed like a slam dunk for Vermont.

     Also- no repeat appearances from any of the authors- you would think Stephen King, at the very least, could get two picks in his home state of Maine and that John Irving could score two in New Hampshire.  Even Paul Harding has a strong claim for multiple picks.  Historical fiction was largely snubbed- no Kenneth Roberts, no Arundel.  Nothing from the Revolutionary War or the French-Indian War.  No Charlotte's Web, a book that is as Maine as it gets.

   Affliction was my top pick from this group of books.  I picked it over two Pulitzer Prize winners (Tinkers and Empire Falls) both of which could have been first. 

1,001 Novels: A Library of America - Maine, New Hampshire & Vermont

1. Affliction (1989) by Russell Banks

2. Tinkers (2009) by Paul Harding

3. The Lottery and Other Stories (1948) by Shirley Jackson

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

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

6. Empire Falls (2001) by Richard Russo

7. Unlikely Animals (2022) by Annie Hartnett

8. Edinburgh (2001) by Alexander Chee

9. Olive Kitteridge(2008) by Elizabeth Strout

10.  October Light (1976) by John Gardner

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

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

13.  Peyton Place (1956) by Grace Metalious

14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) by John Irving

15. A Day No Pigs Would Die (1972)  by Robert Newton Peck 

16. The Dearly Departed (2001) by Elinor Lipman

17. Evenings (1998) by Susan Minot

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

19.    Baby Love by (1980) Joyce Maynard

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

21.  Carrie (1974) by Stephen King

22.  A Separate Peace (1959) by John Knowles

23.  Chenoo (2016) by Joseph Bruchac

24.  Lake People (2013) by Abi Maxwell

25.  The Lowering Days (2021) by Gregory Brown

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

27. Songs in Ordinary Times (1995) by Mary McGary Morris

28. Live Free Or Die (1990) by Ernest Hebert

29. Lungfish (2022) by Megan Gilliss

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

31. Fortune's Rock (2001) by Anita Shreve 

32. Stern Men (2000) by Elizabeth Gilbert

33.  Midwives (1997) by Chris Bohjalian

34. Cost (2008)  by Roxana Robinson

35.  Winter People (2014) by Jennifer McMahon

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

37. Red Hook Road (2010) by Ayelet Waldman

38.  Before and After (1992) by Rosellen Brown

39.    Oslo, Maine (2021)by Marcia Butler

40.   Salem Falls (2001) by Jodi Picoult

41. Project x (2004) by Jim Shepard

42.  The Poachers Son (2011) by Paul Doiron

43.  Boar Island (2016) by Nevada Barr

Vermont

1. The Lottery and Other Stories (1948) by Shirley Jackson

2.  October Light (1976) by John Gardner 

3. A Day No Pigs Would Die (1972)  by Robert Newton Peck 

4.  Songs in Ordinary Times (1995) by Mary McGary Morris  

5.  Midwives (1997) by Chris Bohjalian  

6.  Winter People (2014) by Jennifer McMahon 

7.  Project x (2004) by Jim Shepard  

New Hampshire 

1. Affliction (1989) by Russell Banks 

2. Unlikely Animals (2022) by Annie Hartnett 

3. Peyton Place (1956) by Grace Metalious 

4. A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) by John Irving

5.  The Dearly Departed (2001) by Elinor Lipman

6. Baby Love by (1980) Joyce Maynard  

7. A Separate Peace (1959) by John Knowles

8.  Leah, New Hampshire:  The Collected Stories of Thomas Williams (1992) by Thomas Williams

9. Lake People (2013) by Abi Maxwell

10. Live Free Or Die (1990) by Ernest Hebert

11. Fortune's Rock (2001) by Anita Shreve 

12. Before and After (1992) by Rosellen Brown

13. Salem Falls (2001) by Jodi Picoult

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. Red Hook Road (2010) by Ayelet Waldman

21.  Oslo, Maine (2021)by Marcia Butler

22. The Poachers Son (2011) by Paul Doiron

 23. Boar Island (2016) by Nevada Barr

1,001 Novels: A Library of America - Vermont

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America - Vermont

1. The Lottery and Other Stories (1948) by Shirley Jackson

2.  October Light (1976) by John Gardner

3. A Day No Pigs Would Die (1972)  by Robert Newton Peck 

4.  Songs in Ordinary Times (1995) by Mary McGary Morris

5.  Midwives (1997) by Chris Bohjalian

6.  Winter People (2014) by Jennifer McMahon

7.  Project x (2004) by Jim Shepard

      

  It's tough to make many observations about the literary state of Vermont based on a sample size of four books.  If you include Vermont in a Northern New England Three Pack with New Hampshire and Maine some themes do start to emerge, but so far as Vermont itself goes the only trend I notice was two YA titles out a total of seven titles, close to a third.  But sample size being small and all, hard to draw any conclusions from 2/7.

     Shirley Jackson is the stand out here, the only A grade canon level author in the group.  Two are YA one offs (Peck/Shepard), three are more-or-less best-seller type authors who are on the border of literature and fiction and John Gardner is an interesting non-canon author who is a kind of "what might have been" situation.   Mostly, Vermont functions in all the books as an extension of the rural parts of Maine and New Hampshire- no city people here, just towns folk and rural farmer types.  No coast to speak of, and no "summer people"- who feature in both Maine and New Hampshire in a prominent way.  

April Morning (1961) by Howard Fast

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

April Morning (1961)

by Howard Fast
Lexington, Massachusetts

Massachusetts: 4/30

    At last, a work of historical fiction on the 1001 Novels: A Library of America, list.  Not that I love historical fiction but there have been so many works of contemporary fiction with protagonists that rely heavily on single moms, their sad kids and the alcoholic/absent father- I'm about to tote up all of northern New England: Maine, New Hampshire & Vermont, and I'm guessing the number of titles with sad single moms and their alcoholic/absent husbands is at least 50 percent.

  Why not more historical fiction?  I mean, I know why, because it is very unfashionable and deeply uncool and very little of it has been written in the past couple decades, in terms of the canon.  I found April Morning, a fictionalized account of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April of 1775, very interesting.  The story is told through the eyes of Adam Cooper, a 15 year old boy on the cusp of manhood who finds his life turned upside down in the days surrounding the battle.   April Morning is an interesting example of a book that was intended for adults but found wider acceptance as a "YA title" because of the coming of age elements surrounding his main character. 

The Edge of Winter (2007) by Luanne Rice

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

The Edge of Winter (2007)

by Luanne Rice

South County, Rhode Island

Rhode Island:  6/9

 

  I checked out the Audiobook of The Edge of Winter by Luanne Rice.  Huge mistake.  It made this intolerable tale even longer and more boring than it had to be.  I want to make it clear that I am accepting the gauntlet thrown down by editor/creator of the 1001 Novels: A Library of America to embrace what is disparagingly called "chick lit" - though Straight seems to favor melodrama over the rom-com style plots of "classic" chick lit.  Perhaps it might be better to say that 1001 Novels: A Library of America is filled with Oprah-lit- books that have been selected by Oprah for her books club must have featured a half dozen times already.   Rice churns out titles with depressing regularity of someone who is operating in-genre- but she has some hits- one of her books has 65k Amazon reviews which is an astonishing number for any book anywhere.  Most of her books have between 500 and 1500 reviews, which is good but not great.

   Anyway- this one was straight-up excruciating with all of the tropes of New England lit by way of a Lifetime movie rolled into one Audiobook with an implausibly earnest narrator in light of the subject matter.  I just, couldn't wait to be finished.  Utterly excruciating.  Very Rhode Island though- can't fault The Edge of Winter for being picked for the 1001 Novels list. 

Outside Providence (1988) by Peter Farrelly

 1001 Novels: A Library of America

Outside Providence (1988)

by Peter Farrelly

Providence, Rhode Island

Rhode Island: 5/9

     Fiction about Americans is almost entirely about three different groups:  city people, town people and rural people.  Part of understanding American Literature is understanding the demographic changes where Americans have increasingly become concentrated in urban areas while at the same time resisting identifying themselves as embracing big city/cosmopolitan virtues.  This shift happened in the 20th century. At the beginning of the century the concentration of people in towns and cities was under 30 percent of the total population.  Today it's something like 90 percent of the total population in the United States. 

   Those places that are NOT located in cities, towns and built up areas are increasingly defined by their proximity to those places and intrusions from those places.  In the states of New England, you can see that clearly in the fiction of Maine and Vermont which fairly crackles with the tension between locals and those from away.   I mention this because Rhode Island is the first truly urban setting encountered in the 1001 Novels sequence.  Obviously, Boston is THE city for New England, but Providence Rhode Island would be the second place finisher.  Thus, it's not surprising to read a book by Hollywood filmmaker Peter Farrelly- presumably a fictionalized version of his own upbringing Outside Providence, coming out of Rhode Island.

    This book basically seemed like a regional variation on The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll, which was about growing up in New York City between 1963 and 1966.   Outside Providence is set in a different state and decade, but there is no mistaking the "city kid" coming of age motif that has been current since The Catcher in the Rye was published in the New Yorker.  As far as I can tell, Outside Providence was a flop when it came out, then got made into a movie after the Farrelly Brothers broke out in Hollywood.  To Farrelly's credit, Outside Providence does feel like a book set in a specific place- plenty of scenery described and outdoor escapades.