Sarah Braunstein's uncomfortable, beautiful hyperreality

Books

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An enjoyable reading list

By DEIRDRE FULTON | September 16, 2009

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WEST ENDER Andrew McNabb, who lives in Portland, will appear on Wednesday.

Need a break from all that required reading this fall? You're in luck. In addition to autumn's amazing offerings on bookshelves everywhere (the coming months will see new releases from Lorrie Moore; Jonathans Franzen, Lethem, and Safran Foer; Margaret Atwood; Philip Roth; and A.S. Byatt), greater Portland will host events to reinvigorate our appreciation of the written word. Here's a round-up of some of the season's most-promising literary happenings (they'll tide us over until LeVar Burton starts his Reading-Rainbow-for-adults Webisodes!).

Andrew McNabb | The Body of This | September 16

From the Phoenix review of the Portlander's book: "McNabb's brief stories (there are 28 total in this slim volume) are full of detailed physical descriptions of both interior and exterior terrains. The characters struggle to find their places, in the world at-large and in relation to other people. They are immigrants, elderly people, city mice gone country, and lovers. In many cases, they interact rather clinically, both with each other and with their surroundings. This is a collection that strives to dissect and distill, to remind us that disparate parts and individual sensations are the bricks that comprise the buildings of our lives. It's not a comforting read, but it still has something of a celebratory feel; it revels in, as one character puts it, 'The beauty and surprise of pure human potential!'"

Sherrie Flick | Reconsidering Happiness | September 23

The start of this debut novel feels pensive, moody, and restless — which makes sense, given its subjects: young women looking for roots, looking for answers, looking for lives. The book has garnered praise from early reviewers; the author will read and sign copies of her book in Portsmouth as part of a brief New England tour.

Nicholson Baker | The Anthologist | October 1

A modern master of literary fiction (and a Mainer, at that!) will travel from his home in South Berwick to read from his latest, The Anthologist (Simon and Schuster), in Portland on October 1. After his recent non-fiction outings — Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization (Simon & Schuster, 2008) — Nicholson Baker has returned to his novelish roots with a story about a struggling poetry enthusiast who's recently lost a lover. With the trademark brilliance he showed in The Mezzanine and Vox, Baker picks apart bizarro minutiae to expose larger thought-themes, to examine neuroses and personal histories. Here's a teaser; The Anthologist's opening salvo:

"Hello, this is Paul Chowder, and I'm going to try to tell you everything I know. Well, not everything I know, because a lot of what I know, you know. But everything I know about poetry. All my tips and tricks and woes and worries are going to come tumbling out before you. I'm going to divulge them. What a juicy word that is, 'divulge.' Truth opening its petals. Truth smells like Chinese food and sweat."

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Fall Books Preview: Reading list
Even if you’re not back in the classroom, autumn inspires a desire to learn, to restore the intellectualism that was fried by too many beers and barbecues and sunburns. Fortunately, Portland is full this fall with opportunities to spark your smarts.
Reaching a new frontier
Shetterly's new memoir, Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home is the story of hardships — financial, familial, emotional — not usually the stuff that inspires switching places.
So you thought you were special
Reading Hannah Holmes's work is enlightening and entertaining — even when it's at its most depressing.
Which was fine
There are probably 10 or 15 reviews I could write of Jessica Anthony's The Convalescent . Leitmotifs populate the book's 240 pages like thick, black hairs on the back of an old man's wrinkled ass.
Learning curve
Maine novelist teases our brains
‘Junk Food’ Improvement
Portland native and healthful-cookie entrepreneur Laura Trice has based her career on building a better sweet tooth.
Sarah Braunstein's uncomfortable, beautiful hyperreality
There's an unsettling honesty that spills from Portland author Sarah Braunstein's first novel, The Sweet Relief of Missing Children .
Back to the land
There is an idyllic pull to the homesteading lifestyle, especially when such a back-to-the-land experiment is undertaken on the coast of Maine, where rocky shores abut dense woods and merely breathing the air imparts rural spirit and pluck.
Back-to-school supplies
After a summer that started with a monsoon and coasted into its final lap with a heat wave, when we talked about Wilco, celebrity deaths, and Shakespeare in the park, when we feared tasers and crime sprees, and we consumed Mexican food and ice cream, we're ready to make the transition into fall.
Dead like me
"Perception vs. reality. In high school, they are pretty much the same thing." So writes Tonya Hurley, author of ghostgirl and ghostgirl: Homecoming (Little Brown), two books ostensibly written for young adults but with elements that are just as appealing to grown-ups.
Owning her identity
After twice seeing the one-woman stage adaptation of The Passion of the Hausfrau at Portland Stage Company, and perusing several issues of the Hausfrau mutha-zine , I was curious to see how Nicole Chaison's tales of motherhood would translate to book form.
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Topics: Books , Barack Obama, Portland Fall 2009, Lorrie Moore, More

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[ 02/19 ] Jozef van Wissem + Robbie Lee + Arborea @ The Oak and The Ax

ARTICLES BY DEIRDRE FULTON

SEEKING REDEMPTION | February 15, 2012
Since 2006, CLYNK has been recycling bottles and cans at its South Portland plant (more than 270 million, according to the ticking counter on its website), allowing customers to accumulate balances in personal accounts that can be redeemed for cash or donated to education and charity organizations.

A WEEKEND IN MAINE'S NORTH WOODS TEACHES LESSONS BEYOND SURVIVAL | February 10, 2012
Tim Smith doesn't think the apocalypse is coming. He's not into high-tech gadgets or high-drama, made-for-TV survival situations.

WILL THE NEXT KEYSTONE FIGHT HAPPEN IN NEW ENGLAND? | February 08, 2012
We may have narrowly avoided Keystone XL (for now), but local environmental activists say that Maine and New England are not safe from "the dirtiest oil on earth," with a huge Canadian oil company seeking other routes to pump crude oil out of Alberta.

LOCAL ADJUNCT PROFESSORS FIGHT FOR THEIR PIECE OF THE PIE | January 25, 2012
Even as Governor Paul LePage and others tout the importance of the community college system in Maine, the adjunct professors at Southern Maine Community College and the University of Southern Maine are without contracts.

TRUTH TO POWER | January 18, 2012
It's the end of the world as we know it in author and environmental journalist Bill McKibben's latest book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (St. Martin's Griffin).