Book Review: The Edge of Maine by Geoffrey Wolff
I recently took a trip to Orono, a small town near Bangor where the University of Maine is located, to visit one of my sons, and soon I’ll be returning for a couple of weeks to dog-sit while my son joins a team to study permafrost in Alaska. Whenever I travel to a new place that is for me unexplored territory, I like to learn as much as I can about it, so as prelude to my journey, I searched for books on Maine at the Seattle Public Library. There were surprisingly few; there was not even a copy of The Maine Woods by Henry David Thoreau. I searched a few used bookstores downtown and came up empty as well. One of the owners told me that he got at least forty requests for Walden for every request for anything else by Thoreau. I suppose the same imbalance might occur if someone went into a library or bookstore in Maine and looked for volumes on the Pacific Northwest; a local venue will always place more emphasis on what’s close. At the library I did, though, come across The Edge of Maine, published in 2005 as part of the National Geographic Directions Literary Travel Series.
The Edge of Maine does not purport to be a comprehensive travelogue or history. Instead, it meanders from place to place along the Maine coastline at the author’s whim; it is more like a collection of disparate essays than a single sustained piece. Still, it tells some interesting stories. For instance, the author describes his visits to a few of the thousands of islands off the Maine coast and tells tales of the lobstermen who live there and the tremendous Atlantic tempests that pound them in winter, turning these idyllic havens into storm-swept alien environments. He tells of the once-thriving shipbuilding industry, which took advantage of the incomparable timber in the area, using white pine for masts, oak for keels, and “cedar, spruce, maple, and elm” for “ribs and stems and decks.” He also offers a fascinating history of the ice industry; when the Kennebec River froze in winter, the ice would be cut out in blocks, stored in warehouses, and shipped to cities along the east coast of America, to the Caribbean, and even to faraway India, a journey of six months. The booming ice business came to an abrupt end, of course, with the invention of electric refrigeration.
Another section of the book deals with long-time Maine residents attempting to preserve the environment from those who would exploit it by building dams on the rivers, nuclear power plants, and other potentially devastating industries. He also delves into the often strained relationships between permanent residents and summer-dwelling wealthy outsiders who cause property taxes to skyrocket with their elaborate mansions and vast tracts of manicured landscapes.
As I said, the book is not thorough, but in the subjects it touches on it offers a glimpse into the unique character of Maine and its inhabitants. Wolff writes with irony, satire, and tongue-in-cheek humor, but sometimes his prose is a bit dense and convoluted. Still, his insights into some of the more esoteric aspects of the history and society of Maine make this a worthwhile read for those who want to learn more about the state located in the far northeast corner of the United States.
