MAINE by J.Courtney Sullivan

  As one who has issues against Catholicism this book did not start out well for me. Actually it took me three tries to get past the first several pages. Once I got past the author's toe dipping into writing an updated version of any of Taylor Caldwell's or Mary McCarthy's novels I really enjoyed the story, sort of. The characters are somewhat stock in trade, i.e. the Irish drunken father, the sister who could have become a nun and the sister who spends her life trying to atone for a sin she did not commit. Shades of The Thorn Birds rear their ugly heads with the introduction of a handsome priest and the intertwined family members that make up the cast of literary characters. In the end none of that mattered. I actually really, really liked this novel. Certainly, the characters are mostly unloveable, the plot line is trite and hackneyed but Sullivan's writing; her descriptions of a dying familial archetype and the world in which they live in makes it one of those books that one cannot put down. While she may not be one of the most original or best authors today she can certainly weave a tale that is seductive and one that is "unputdownable". And yes, I am looking forward to reading another one of her books. Great literature, no, entertaining, most assuredly.