Andrew, narrator of Adan White's Midcoast, his wife, and their young children, who have returned to the part of Maine where he grew up, attend a lavish lobster fest put on by Ed and Steph Thatch. It's to celebrate the Amherst Women's lacrosse team. Their younger child, Allie, is on the team. Although everything seems staged perfectly--filled lobster pots have been planted so the girls can help bring the main course in--there is something off script that descends on the seemingly picture perfect family in the form of a line of state police cruisers.
Andrew and Ed had met as teens, Ed being Andrew's summer job boss at his family's business, a lobster pound. When they went their separate ways their paths diverged considerably. Andrew finished college and became a high school teacher/coach. Ed stuck with the crustaceans.
But when Andrew and family, frustrated by the cost of living in Boston, return to Damariscota Ed and Steph have become local royalty. He has a lot of money; she's the elected town manager. Andrew becomes obsessed with their unexpected and unexplainable upward trajectory to the point where he turns his home's pantry into a studio and begins writing a book about them.
Through Andrew's research we get a picture of a man deeply in love, determined to get his wife whatever she desired and to shield her from the knowledge of how it was obtained, a woman not entirely clueless but enjoying the perks, a son who becomes a police officer at least partly to protect his father from the law, a first generation college student daughter who sometimes feels buried under parental hopes, and the town not as eager to gentrify as their town manager. Throughout the narrative suspense pushes in as thickly as early morning fog pushing inland off Maine waters, building up to a well orchestrated crescendo.
If you like adult novels about the interactions of good but flawed human beings without a whole lot of gratuitous sex, violence, and literary special effects you owe it to yourself to read The Midcoast.
On a purrrsonal note, Ed reminds me of Eugene. Don't get me wrong. Eugene is not a law breaker. But he is as devoted to me as Ed is to Steph. I see the evidence, not only in things he buys for me that he thinks are money wastes, such as Peeps, but in how when the kids grew up and people assumed I'd get a job he defended my right to go to graduate school. Even though it's a mystery to him why I'd want to. I was reminded again how lucky I am. (Jules)
He came home yesterday. He was away three sleeps. And now we have him home again. Oh, happy day! (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Eugene.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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