I’ve never been to Maine, but my reading sure seems to gravitate there. This year has been especially rich with family dramas set on the rugged coasts of New England, and the latest one I picked up is “Pete and Alice in Maine” by Caitlin Shetterly.
This is first and foremost a pandemic novel, set in the spring of 2020, when the world was thrust into fear and uncertainty. Pete and Alice are wealthy Manhattanites with two young daughters and a vacation home in Maine. At Alice’s insistence, they escape to the land of lobsters and lighthouses in hopes of waiting out the crisis, but we quickly learn that they’re running from more than just COVID.The couple’s marriage is in trouble, and we watch them try to figure out their fractured relationship along with the struggles of modern parenthood.
It’s hard to get past the screaming uber-privilege in this storyline, despite the great writing and realistic backdrop of the pandemic. Pete trades on Wall Street and continues to make a fortune on shares of Amazon and Clorox, while Alice gripes about the gray hairs she can see when she glimpses herself on Zoom. We’re left rolling our eyes and thinking, “You poor dears, with your cottage in Maine...”
That said, the novel deftly explores the everyday joys and heartbreaks of real-life marriage, and that part is relatable no matter your economic status. Alice is particularly well-drawn, and her 5- and 11-year-old daughters are realistic if a tad insufferable. All in all, not the best literary journey to Maine — try Elizabeth Strout or Richard Russo for that — but a pleasant side trip.
