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A review by bethreadsandnaps
The Midcoast by Adam White
3.0
The setting for this debut is extraordinary. The author obviously knows Maine and New England so well, and I was transported there.
Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of much else in this novel. The main character Andrew, a teacher and writer, returns to his small hometown in Maine. He reacquaints himself with Ed from his high school days, and Ed and his wife Steph have transformed their socioeconomic status to be royalty in this small town. As the reader learns, their success is due to nefarious means, including burglaries and drug trafficking.
Andrew is invited to Ed and Steph's party that's celebrating their daughter Allie and her lacrosse success. There, the police descend, and the decades of secrets are about to surface.
I think the author put himself in the Andrew character, and I liked his perspective in the beginning of the novel, and then the perspective switches (maybe?) to an omniscient narration like he's writing a nonfiction book of these people's lives. But he's been gone for 20 years, so I'm not sure if it is still him narrating how he would know the details of other people's lives over the past 20 years. I might have gotten "stuck" on these points.
Nevertheless, I didn't find the omniscient narration of the intervening 20 years that compelling. I wasn't moved by any of the characters, and I didn't feel attached to any of them.
I do feel that this is the best novel to read for the Maine SETTING but not necessarily for the story itself.
Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of much else in this novel. The main character Andrew, a teacher and writer, returns to his small hometown in Maine. He reacquaints himself with Ed from his high school days, and Ed and his wife Steph have transformed their socioeconomic status to be royalty in this small town. As the reader learns, their success is due to nefarious means, including burglaries and drug trafficking.
Andrew is invited to Ed and Steph's party that's celebrating their daughter Allie and her lacrosse success. There, the police descend, and the decades of secrets are about to surface.
I think the author put himself in the Andrew character, and I liked his perspective in the beginning of the novel, and then the perspective switches (maybe?) to an omniscient narration like he's writing a nonfiction book of these people's lives. But he's been gone for 20 years, so I'm not sure if it is still him narrating how he would know the details of other people's lives over the past 20 years. I might have gotten "stuck" on these points.
Nevertheless, I didn't find the omniscient narration of the intervening 20 years that compelling. I wasn't moved by any of the characters, and I didn't feel attached to any of them.
I do feel that this is the best novel to read for the Maine SETTING but not necessarily for the story itself.