I enjoyed Butler’s debut Pickle’s Progress, so I figured I’d check out latest. With this sophomore effort, the author switches gears significantly and takes readers from NYC of Pickle to Oslo, Maine. A town too small to register with anyone but its occupants, seven of which are the protagonists of this novel, comprising three very different, complexly interconnected families.
There are the Roys, a couple with a young son, the star of the show, a smart bookish musically inclined boy who is so radically different from his gun toting macho man butcher (literally) of a father, that is causes the man great consternation, while his wife is quietly sedating herself into oblivion.
There are their neighbors, a couple of outsiders (i.e. not originally from Maine like the Roys), classical musicians who came to Oslo to live a quiet life, but now they can barely afford it.
And then there is a 29 year old mentally different/simple/slow (whatever the proper definition du jour is and it is du jour isn’t it, changing way faster than social language is meant to evolve) man living with his wealthy grandmother.
This is a story about them and their lives. It’s quiet, unassuming (presumably like Mainers themselves), but also fraught with all sorts of drama, romantic, parental, etc.
Marcia Butler is a very, very good character writer, of that there is no question. But the characters themselves here, for all their complexities, aren’t especially engaging or likeable for that matter. In fact, the most engaging and likeable character is quadrupedal and viciously victimized throughout the entire novel by the bipeds. I mean, seriously it’s almost odd. It’s like Butler watched Bambi and thought, well, that is neither sad enough nor messed up enough, let’s Moose it up into proper butchery. So yeah, if animal cruelty disturbs you…prepare to be disturbed.
But it says something about a novel, doesn’t it, when a character study of seven individuals is outshone and outdone by an animal doing her best to survive them. I mean, I can understand how the author used that as a sort of plot driving device the entire narrative is framed around, but still…and also, the ending is all too neat and happy, for the story itself and at least for some of them, it seems, undeservingly so. Not sure. Who are we to judge the imaginary people of Oslo, Maine, doing their level best and coming up short time after time…until the epilogue.
So anyway, there it is. I liked it, didn’t love it. It’s an objectively well written book, it read easily and quickly and, again, first rate character development. But it didn’t really wow on any level, although profoundly disturbed on one. Middle of the road, really. Not quite Pickle’s Progress, but author’s progress remains compelling enough for potential future reads. Thanks Netgalley.

I tried to like this book. I ordinarily enjoy books about quirky characters and small towns, but I got about halfway through and just found it to be too depressing.

Sometimes difficult to follow but still entertaining this book weaves together several smaller stories of a boy named Pierre and his life in rural Maine.