Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

In Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan, the author unfolds a story about the relationships of the women in a Boston family who have a vacation retreat on the banks of a beach in Maine. The three acres contains the original cottage built by the Kelleher man as well as a more modern house built later. This is not a beach read nor is it chick lit although the cover sure portrays it that way. Maine is a much more layered and intense story in the capable hands of Sullivan whose proving grounds for female relationships occurred in her debut novel Commencement.

The Kelleher women are complicated: Alice, the widowed matriarch, has resumed  her drinking alcohol after a long break as she aches over the loss of her husband Daniel 10 years ago and the tragic death of her sister even longer ago; daughter Clare never has time for Alice because she is busy running a business with her husband and supporting her son’s acting ambition; daughter Kathleen, beloved by Daniel and always at odds with Alice not least of all because of her divorce, is a recovering alcoholic; Kathleen’s daughter Maggie is pregnant and has just parted from a not very nice boyfriend; and Ann Marie, married to Alice’s son Patrick, is the woman who has never been considered good enough by her sisters-in-law to be in the Kelleher family. 

Their stories and secrets develop over a summer when all but Clare end up at the beach property at the same time, something they’ve tried for years now to avoid by divvying up the cottage by months: June for Kathleen, July for Ann Marie, and August for Clare with Alice there in the “big house” throughout. Themes explored in the novel include sibling rivalry, social climbing, the afore-mentioned alcoholism, and Catholic guilt. For the most part, the tone is serious with insertions of dry humor throughout.

Sullivan was a prolific magazine and newspaper writer before she started writing novels. Maine, her second, named a Best Book of the Year by Time magazine, and a Washington Post Notable Book for 2011, was thoroughly enjoyable.