Voices of Maine
A new short-story collection showcases the state?s premier writers at their briefest and best.
By Gerry Boyle
The plan was to sit down with this collection of stories, a pen, and some paper so I could read and make notes: quotable descriptions of Maine settings, memorable characters, chunks of dialogue that rang particularly true. But in the end, when I closed Contemporary Maine Fiction (published by Down East Books, Camden, Maine; hardcover; 296 pages; $25) on the last story, "Slow Monkeys" by Jim Nichols, I hadn't written a word.Not that there was nothing notable in this anthology, edited by the poet and essayist Wesley McNair.
