Downeast

Adult nonfiction 

     "Here, seasons define that life.  Each summer, the lobstermen glide across a steady sea, and their workdays stretch through endless sunlit hours.  By the time October rolls around, they give the chilling air a knowing nod, and quicken their pace.  As fall succumbs to winter's yawn, they brace their boats against the coming freeze.  Months later, when they feel the ice-blown craters in the roads beneath their pick up trucks, the lobstermen know that, finally, spring has come."

     Living by the seasons?  If you're like me, you'll find that hard to imagine.  Most of us orient ourselves around much more artificial rhythms.  For me in academia it's all about semesters.  This is the hectic tail end of one.  For my daughter, Katie, who works in hedge funds, the year seems to revolve around income tax season.

     This seasonal adherence is only one of the reasons Washington County seems to be a world apart from Maine's more affluent, less isolated regions.  Lost industries are a testimony to the challenges of survival in a place of austere beauty.  This is probably a key reason for its high rates of opioid addiction.

     After Trump was elected there was a lot of talk about the rural Americans who supplied so many of his votes.  They were portrayed as uneducated rubes, easily fooled by tricksters into voting against their own interests.  Gigi Georges believed that such stereotypes oversimplified rural residents and the complex economic and cultural challenges they face.  She also felt that girls and young women--forces for change--were being overlooked.

     "In the case of Downeast, girls are, by and large, surpassing the boys in academics, sports, arts, focus on community, and general ambition and leadership--and are doing so despite big challenges.  What forces are pushing them to thrive and succeed?  How has growing up in the region shaped them? And how are they helping to shape the futures of their hometowns?"

     Downeast: Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America is Georges' attempt to answer these questions.  She sees Willow, Vivian, McKenna, Audrey, and Josie as personifying the challenges and opportunities of time and place experienced by their many peers.  Their lives from preteens to young adulthood are beautifully described.  You get to see the good, the bad, and the sometimes very ugly.

     Georges powerfully brings these girls and their world to life.  You'll grasp the complexities and intersectionalities of really fascinating lives.  

     Now when Eugene and I drive through the towns of Washington County on our way to and from camp I can no longer see their people through the lens of regional bias.

On a purrrsonal note, one skill that I have developed this semester that I'm really proud of is the ability to create surveys on my laptop and send them to the person who can make copies.  My first two I wrote out in longhand and got them photocopied.  They worked but didn't look all that professional.  Ben formatted my next survey and printed it out.  I felt that I should learn how.  Then I realized I could use chrome.  Now I can turn out a very professional looking survey.  I'm gaining so many skills in this internship that I will use the rest of my life.  (Jules)

Drizzly grey day.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to my internship supervisor, Ben, for facilitating an internship that is a huge opportunity to learn and grow as a person and professional.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

     

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