Ernie's Ark: The Abbott Falls Stories
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Book Overview
"Like Elizabeth Strout, her fellow chronicler of small-town Maine life, Monica Wood imbues her characters with the complexity and humanity of real people. Ernie's Ark is as true as life."--Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan Train
In ten interlinking stories, the town of Abbot Falls reacts as Ernie Whitten, pipefitter, builds a giant ark in his backyard. Ernie was weeks away from a pension-secured retirement when the union went on strike. Now his wife Marie is ill. Struck with sudden inspiration, Ernie builds the ark as a work of art for his wife to see from the window; a vessel to carry them both away; or a plea for God to spare Marie, come hell or high water. As the ark takes shape, the rest of the town carries on. There's Dan Little, a building-code enforcer who comes to fine Ernie for the ark and makes a significant discovery about himself; Francine Love, a precocious thirteen-year-old who longs to be a part of the family-like world of the union workers; and Atlantic Pulp & Paper CEO Henry John McCoy, an impatient man wearily determined to be a good father to his twenty-six-year-old daughter. The people of Abbott Falls will try their best to hold a community together, against the fiercest of odds. . . . Few writers can capture the extraordinary within seemingly ordinary lives as does Monica Wood. An unforgettable tapestry of love, loneliness--and neighbors.Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:1567926681
ISBN13:9781567926682
Release Date:September 2020
Publisher:David R. Godine Publisher
Length:240 Pages
Weight:0.56 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 5.3" x 7.5"
Customer Reviews
4 ratings
Beautiful Read
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
Monica Wood's story is set in a small town which is affected by the closure of a local paper mill. Wood follows several characters, each with a unique and touching perspective. I cherished this book and often give it as a gift to other readers.
Another Winner for Monica Wood!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
I *discovered* this writer when I read "My Only Story" which I absolutely loved. I then followed up with "The Secret Language", an entirely different but equally rewarding read. So when I heard about "Ernie's Ark" there was no doubt that I would read it! And it was a joy.I always enjoy reading books of connected stories and this was one of the best. Wood created a foundation with the first story and proceeded to build on it until she finished constructing a marvelously detailed structure. I loved how each story started anew but then incorporated some character or event from a previous story, creating one of those "a-ha" moments.Abbott Falls, Maine could have been Anytown, USA and showed Wood's familiarity with this kind of environment and with the effect that a mill, a union, and striking workers can have on the town. The wonderfully developed characters are people we have met before in our lives. Perhaps we did not know all their secrets, but we have known them, I am sure.This is a book of life, death, love, hate, fear, anger, joy, and most of all, about redemption. I cannot wait for her next!
Delight and insight!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
This work compares very favorably with Richard Russo's Pulitzer-winning EMPIRE FALLS and covers much of the same territory. Like Russo, Wood is intimately and intricately familiar with the people she characterizes so well. Some of these stories could happen anywhere; some only in smalltown Maine. The stories are loosely connected and characters overlap in what in the hands of a lesser writer, might seem a contrived structure, but which here adds a depth of patterning to the already complicated relationships between these entirely lovable, if foible-full creations. You won't find Abbott Falls on any map of Maine, but towns and situations of similar ilk about everywhere, especailly in the smalltown Maine of the human heart.
Absolutely delightful!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
I LOVE this book! If you have never read anything by Monica Wood, make this your first! You will fall in love with her after reading this book! What a touching and inspiring story (collection of stories) of a small town in Maine and the residents' response to it's economic crisis. The characters are so real and the events of their lives so familiar. . . makes you think Ms. Wood must've not only written about it, but LIVED it! Her ability to create such an accurate portrait of this town and it's residents is truly remarkable. She possesses an acute understanding of human nature and small town sensitivity. Monica Wood is on my "must read" list and I anxiously await her next book. Kudos to this supreme writer on this magnificent book!
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