Ernie's Ark: Stories

by Monica Wood

The paper mill looms up from the riverbank in Abbott Falls, Maine, a town once drenched with ordinary hopes and dreams, now praying for a small drop of good fortune. Ernie Whitten, a pipe fitter, was three weeks away from a pension-secured retirement when the union went on strike eight months ago. Now his wife Marie is ill. Struck with sudden inspiration, Ernie builds a giant ark in his backyard. It is a work of art for his wife; a vessel to carry them both away; or a plea for God to spare Marie, come hell or high water. As the ark takes shape, the rest of the town carries on. There’s Dan Little, a building-code enforcer who comes to fine Ernie for the ark and makes a significant discovery about himself; Francine Love, a precocious thirteen-year-old who longs to be a part of the family-like world of the union workers; and Atlantic Pulp & Paper CEO Henry John McCoy, an impatient man wearily determined to be a good father to his twenty-six-year-old daughter. The people of Abbott Falls will try their best to hold a community together, against the fiercest of odds. . . .

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Relationships, Audiobook, Book Club, Travel, Social

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Monica Wood is the author of four works of fiction, most recently The One-in-a-Million-Boy, which won a 2017 Nautilus Award (Gold) and the 2017 fiction prize from the New England Society in the City of New York. She also is the author of Any Bitter Thing which spent 21 weeks on the American Booksellers Association extended bestseller list and was named a Book Sense Top Ten pick. Her other fiction includes Ernie’s Ark and My Only Story, a finalist for the Kate Chopin Award.

Monica is also the author of When We Were the Kennedys, a memoir of her growing up in Mexico, Maine. The book won the Maine Literary Award for Memoir in 2013, and the Sarton Women's Literary Awards for Memoir in 2012.

Reviews

[Antoinette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lately I’ve been very generous giving out 5 STARS, but this is another book that deserves every star I am giving it!
These nine interconnected short stories take place in Abbott Falls, Maine, whose main industry and source of employment is the paper mill. The workers have now been on strike for 8 months, with no resolution in sight.

Monica Wood has brought some of the people from this town to life-Ernie, whose love for his wife is heartbreaking and sooo beautiful; Francine, a 14 yr old girl who has never fit in and is such an observer of people; Marie, Ernie’s wife, whose passion for life and her ability to inspire people makes everyone love her. There are other people as well, but these three have nestled a spot in my heart forever!

There is so much humanity in these stories.Monica Wood is a beautiful writer who has brought this town and these people to life.

Thanks to Linda, my GR friend, whose review spurred me to read this book.

I loved it so much, that I am diving into another Monica Wood book right away:)

[Richard Derus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 4.875* of five

The Publisher Says: Acclaimed novelist Monica Wood again turns her keen eye and wry humor to small town Maine. Nine interrelated stories create a layered and complex portrait of a community in the midst of crisis as a strike wears on at the paper mill, and the residents of Abbott Falls feel the reverberations of the towns shifting fortune. Ernie, just days shy of retirement when the strike hits, finds new purpose in building an ark in the backyard. Written with a quiet grace and lyrical power, Ernie's Ark is a moving work by a writer who understands the vagaries and hopes of the human heart.

My Review: Ernie Whitten no longer has a purpose. He's been a pipe-fitter in Abbots Falls, Maine, at the papermill, for most of his life and now he's...retired, unemployed, not working, whatever...BORED. So he decides to build something.

An ark. Like in the Bible. Maybe miracles will come with it, for Marie, his sick wife.

Nine stories spin in their orbits around this one major event in Abbots Falls, involving town residents both willing and unwilling, and purposeful and aimless, and old and young.

Sparkles like a gem. The writing is delectable, a sensory feast and an emotional powerhouse. The characters are all limned in quick, indelible strokes and the way Monica Wood works is to make you care just this side of too much for each of them, and then moves on to the next one, all before your readerly feet are fully under you. It's a really cool trick, gotta tell ya.

I said once upon a time that I couldn't understand why this wasn't a TV series. I still don't get it. Abbotts Falls should be on the airwaves somehow. Don't hesitate to pick this book up. It will pay your attention back many times over.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 2002. One of Wood's earliest works

I picked up this short story collection because I had read the short story Ernie's Ark in an anthology and wanted to read more by this author. The name sake and 1st story of this collection is a story that is sad but somehow hopeful and had a rare beauty that brought me close to tears. I feel a little foolish writing that here for all to see but it is what made me seek out this strange little book.

This is a book of nine short stories and they might be called linked but I found that too loose a term for what is found here. This is instead a novel told with stories. Each story is made up of a distinct character from the small town of Abbott Falls Maine. In the stories the reader learns that the town's paper mill is on strike and then gets an up close view on how that effects personally citizens both young and old in this small town. The stories could be stand alone but there is a loose chronology so if read out of order much of the whole impact would be missed. As each character is colored in, the town takes shape like a family tree of citizens. At first it was a little hard to keep track of the relationships of characters. A visual chart would have been a great help, yet as the stories went on I slowly got a clearer understanding of who were blood relations and who friends or enemies.

There were real moments of brilliance here especially the first and last stories that feature Ernie. Would recommend for anyone who enjoyed Olive Kitteridge.

P.S. I have a special place in my heart for Maine and Maine stories. One of my first loves was from Maine and I spent time on Maine's waters and land in my youth and found it a place of solid depth and folks.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monica Wood brings to life characters that can see into another’s heart . In her beloved , prize winning One -in-a-million-boy she masterfully shines with characters that walked into my heart and never left.

This collection was written 15 years earlier and we are witness to her early gift in a collection of beautifully written short stories that are linked together through a small town experiencing a crisis. She allows you to see the humanity. ..the pain .. the worry .. the defeat..but she also gives you hope thru little acts of unselfishness or expressions of kindness. There is an endearing tenderness in her writing . An almost quietness. This is not as impactful as One -in-a-Million-Boy . But oh is it lovely!

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Monica Wood. There's a sort of understated genius in her writing. Her style reminds me somewhat of Richard Russo, although she's much more brief. She has that same ability to create a small town world with characters you care about, and to throw in a lot of insight about life and relationships.

This is a very short (189 pages) collection of interconnected stories that make a novel when read together. It takes place in a small Maine town where a strike at the paper mill drags on for months and months and divides the town. Each story tells how this situation affects a particular character and those close to him/her. Doesn't sound all that exciting, I know, but I found myself eager to get back to the book for love of the characters and beautiful writing.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how Monica Wood isn't more well known. Her writing just blows me away. Simple and sparse, yet very evocative. It's been a long time (10+ years?) since I've found an author I love so much I have to immediately read everything (s)he's written. Unfortunately she hasn't written all that much! Anyway, this is a collection of linked short stories about the various people of a small working class town in Maine. As with her previous work, the characters are rich and deep and stayed with me long after I ended each story. Please, people, read her stuff!

[Monica Cabral · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neste livro conhecemos Ernie Whitten que resolve construir uma Arca como a de Noé, para homenagear a mulher Marie que está a morrer. Durante esta construção, vão surgindo várias personagens que acabam por estar interligadas e que se unem em torno de Ernie.
Foi uma leitura rápida um livro que distrai e ajuda a passar o tempo mas que não me fascinou por aí além.

[Sherry H · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know I love a bargain, right?

Finding Ernie's Ark as the Nook Daily Find, for 99 cents... it's like finding a pretty little vase at a garage sale that turns out to be Tiffany.

Is it nine short stories, or is it a novel? Is it melancholy, or is it brimming with hope? Are the characters really messed up, or are they really beautifully drawn, rich and deep and good? Yes and yes and yes and yes and yes and YES!

I've never read Monica Wood before, but I am charmed, and will look for more of her works.

[Marilee Freshley · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Nine interrelated stories create a layered and complex portrait of a community in the midst of crisis as a strike wears on at the paper mill, and the residents of Abbott Falls, Maine, feel the reverberations of the towns shifting fortune. Ernie, just days shy of retirement when the strike hits, finds new purpose in building an ark in the backyard. Written with a quiet grace and lyrical power, Ernies Ark is a moving work by a writer who understands the vagaries and hopes of the human heart."

[Rita Andrade]

Gostei imenso desta história (histórias que a compõem). Da forma como as atitudes e decisões de uns, influenciaram as vidas de outros. Do modo como a autora conseguiu nos dar a conhecer personagens tão diferentes, mas com tanto em comum. Da maneira como conseguiu transformar várias histórias numa só: profunda, coerente, coesa e comovente.
"A arca" foi esculpida com amor e com histórias de vida.

Outubro 2022

[Molly Grimmius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanting to read another by this author I went with this novel which is nine stories that are all connected and circulate around the small paper mill community Abott Falls and the strike they are on. It is also about Ernie and his building an ark during the time of his wife’s final days. I once again loved the characters she created and how spread out we went but at the same time so closely intertwined. I didn’t love how many husbands were cheating on their wives… two characters doing this felt a bit much and depressing for all men.

Overall though I am glad I read it and felt like I experienced being a stroke through many perspectives.

[Livi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Growing up as a Mainer, I feel like this book had been jammed down my throat every year of high school. I’ve seen the play, I remember these stories, but I never truly finished reading this one. I finally picked it up and read it.

The only chapters I found worth while were Ernie, Marie, Dan, and McCoy’s. Everything else was dragged out (which is why it took me 3 months to finish this. I was just fkin bored half the time).

A sweet(?) story, I genuinely did get the most emotional at Ernie and Marie’s chapters. Dan Little was a good chapter too. Just a lot of boring and blegh moments between the good parts. Not a horrible read by any means, but I don’t think this is something I’ll necessarily be recommending to anyone unless they too are a Mainer who wants to read about Maine stories.

[Carol D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published in 2002 and republished recently this was a wonderful book about a man, his family and his beloved wife who is dying.

When the small town he lives in paper mill shuts down emotions run high and neighbors begin to change and fight amongst them selves.

Each chapter tells a different characters story, so that by the end you have a clearer understanding of who they are.

I really enjoyed reading this book.

[Lynda Huffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short book of 10 interconnected short stories, set in a paper mill town in Maine. Each story could stand alone as an enjoyable read. Together, they are absolutely wonderful as you get to know members of the town, and their sometimes surprising connections to each other. It’s a “feel good” book…..comfort food for the mind and heart.

[Nancy Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

A small town book about mill town people. I liked it but wished it went on longer. Some unresolved relationships.

Main story is a man who builds a huge ark on his back yard for his dying wife. Very sad.

[Grace Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of my love of this book is the Maine setting and the well done Maine characters. But it has universal themes flowing through it and the connections in the stories was subtle yet strong. I finished the book feeling like I knew each of the characters well. A great thought provoking read.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gostei muito destas histórias ternas e simples que ligam pessoas só aparentemente banais. Uma óptima surpresa 💛

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a small Maine town where a bitter paper mill strike has forced almost everyone to take sides, these nine linked stories explore the ways people stumble towards empathy and grace in their relationships with one another. In several of the stories, perhaps most, it is when the protagonist is feeling most alone and helpless that they put themselves at risk to feel or express compassion for someone else. Most of the stories end with a sense that, however much of a mess the characters have made of their lives (and some have done better than others), they may do a better job with what they have left, often through self-sacrifice or conscious kindness to others. The fact that the stories are told from eight different points of view (mostly third person, but close focus), and that characters are all bound in a web of relationships, signals that the repetition is an intentional choice, that the author is offering a single, nuanced thesis about how life works, argued through a series of cases. And the writing is so lovely - no wasted words, but not austere either - everything is illuminated in a soft, clear light that invites the reader's empathy for each of the main characters in turn.

To make it easier to recall the stories months from now, their focal characters are (1) Ernie Whitten, whose beloved wife Marie is dying of cancer; (2) Henry MCoy, owner of the paper mill; (3) Marie Whitten; (4) Dan Little, striking electrician turned code enforcer, whose brother Timmy has become a scab; (5) Cindy Love, Dan's florist ex-wife, now married to a philandering sculptor Bruce; (6) James Whitten, Ernie and Marie's son, traveling ack to Maine with his ex-wife Karen for Marie's funeral; (7) Kenny Love, Bruce's son from an earlier marriage, who inherits a cabin from his biological mother's uncle; (8) Francine Love, Bruce's daughter, who loves her stepmother Cindy and resents her father's philandering; and (9) Ernie, Francine, and James, five months later.

The title, 'Ernie's Ark', refers both to the art installation Ernie builds to honor Marie, and also to the apparent thesis of the cycle: that our empathy, our reaching out to connect with someone else, is the ark that gets each of us through our personal deluge. The metaphorical and the physical arks merge in the book's final line, describing Ernie and James working together to repair his wooden ark, in the process finding a new basis for their relationship with one another: "They worked long into the evening, father and son, battening down the hatches, two by two."

[Vera Sopa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Não é um clássico moderno como eu o imaginava mas que sei eu disso. Publicado originalmente em 2002 é um romance muito acarinhado pela autora e percebe-se porquê. Direto. Incisivo. Não deixa muita margem para a imaginação porque as personagens se apresentam com as suas idiossincrasias, dores e os seus erros numa povoação à volta de uma fábrica de papel no ocidente do Maine.

Vidas comuns, com mágoas e esperanças, transversais a qualquer um. Profundos sentimentos que calam mas que reconhecem. Homens que faziam o melhor que podiam contra forças incontroláveis. Uma arca, um objeto de grandes dimensões, misterioso, que pertencia a um homem e a uma mulher que tinham passado por uma tempestade sem soçobrar. E a montanha de dor que acompanha uma greve laboral numa pequena comunidade.
Emocionante sem ser lamechas. Nove histórias entretecidas.
O tipo de romance que eu gosto. Do que eu não gosto é da capa que não acho nada apelativa. Parece antiga. Mas faz sentido. Uma longa estrada com alguns altos e um pequeno cão. Faz mesmo todo o sentido. Belíssimo.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monica Wood's fictitious characters live in a fictitious Maine paper mill town, but both the characters and the lives they lead burst with reality.
In "Ernie's Ark" Wood tells each of their stories in separate chapters, weaving those lives together with a delicate artistry and a wonderful sense of believability.
This is a writer who understands the richness of even the sound of words placed together.
Ernie's Yorkshire terrier "Pumpkin Pie" is "this silly-name pushbroom of an animal."
In a conversation with another character, Ernie's son "envied her the luxury of confession."
A dance teacher's leotard "looked like something borrowed from a circus."
A frumpy teenager in the dance class who "moved like a stalled snowplow."
Just a 182 pages, this slim work reads quickly, but take this bit of advice and don't race through it. Savor the writing.

[Scot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book aloud in segments over the last year and it was truly enjoyable. I originally picked it up at a bookstore in Maine when I asked the proprietor to recommend something that would give me the feel of Maine. The book is collection of nine short stories that are all linked to changes in a paper mill town including a strike, rallies, multinational corporation machinations, and how non-mill workers interact in the community. At its heart though this book is about love, loss, connections and solitude. I may have enjoyed this more than the average person will because I work on paper issues and get the inner workings of this clearly and am quite sure this is based on a mill in Maine that was purchased by SAPPI, but that said, even without a working knowledge of this industry this is a beautiful collection and well worth the read!

[Karen Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good collection of closely-linked stories! The weaker ones in the middle serve as exposition for the overall work. And the good ones are really good – several were published in good literary magazines, and the title story won a Pushcart in 1999! Ok, so I am late to the party! I went to a reading of her new memoir "When We Were the Kennedys" (she is from Maine like me) and liked her writing and liked her very much, but I do not particularly care for memoir right now so I read this collection instead and I am glad I did. Detailed comments (with possible spoilers) posted on A Just Recompense.

[Katrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

"All these separate journeys, crossing back and forth over each other, begot in him a type of happiness that felt perilous, vaguely ill-gotten." Page 145

That quote sums up this book for me. So many characters, so many stories but they all intertwine like lives in a small mill town do. Some of the stories are so tragic you almost feel bad for how happy the book makes you at points, as you watch hearts break and loved ones leave the plotline. But no matter what, happiness pours from the pages of this book.

[Marion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another remarkable book by Monica Wood! This one was published 20 years ago in 2004. Here she offers up a rich array of interconnected stories about the inhabitants of a small Maine town called Abbott Falls where the paper mill is the biggest employer in town and the union strike looms large in each of the them. Just like Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, the stories offer a rich array of the lives of the townsfolk - heartwarming moments of joy, sadness and laughter. I am always left with a sense of well-being when I finish her novels!

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't feel like this book tied anything substantial together...it was just a bunch of random people in a small town--not even connected wholly to the central symbol, which was Ernie's Ark (obviously). I would have been more settled about it if it was just compiled as a series of short stories. Not my favorite read.

[Mickey Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book of stories, and I usually don't like short stories, but this reads like a novel, as all the characters are connected. Young and old, all living in a mill town in Maine. I loved all the stories, and the beautiful writing. Each story could be a novel in itself. I am so happy to have found this author. She has other books that I can't wait to read.

[D.J. Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has interesting characters structured into ten vignettes linked by a small mill town in Maine during a paper mill strike. It is a pleasant read and engaging. The episodes and characters are all interwoven, but their thinking and motives are quite different from one another. For me, I would have liked to learn more about each of the characters, especially Ernie.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tender and deeply insightful book about small town life and the strength of the human spirit. I love the way Wood weaves these stories together. They can stand on their own but together they stand much taller.

[Chelsea Bartlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing. When I finished "The Temperature of Desire," I literally flung myself down and started sobbing. And that was far from the only story in the book that affected me so powerfully. Truly incredible stories.

[R.J. Heller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can lightning strike twice? It sure can when it comes to a long-ago published book that readers kept asking its author about and also happens to be that author’s favorite book. It’s just a matter of time when something has to give. That time is now. After 18 years, all is right again with the re-release of Monica Wood’s collection of short stories, Ernie’s Ark.

Wood, a Maine native who continues to live and work in Maine, is a novelist, memoirist and playwright. Her novel, The One-in-a-Million Boy, garnered a 2017 Nautilus Award and the New England Society Book Award. Her memoir When We Were the Kennedys was an Oprah Magazine summer-reading pick and won both the May Sarton Memoir Award and the 2016 Maine Literary Award.

Having the pleasure of reading and reviewing Wood’s The One-in-a-Million Boy, I was familiar with her uncanny ability to make one want to connect with her characters. Whether it’s a 104-year-old woman who believes anything is possible, or the indomitable Ernie Whitten, who loves his wife and tries to prove it every single day, Wood’s characters are a delight with which to share some time.
This collection of short stories takes place in Abbott Falls, a fictional Maine paper mill town.

At the beginning we meet Ernie Whitten, a retired pipefitter who is gloomy about everything and trying to make the best of a bad situation that has gotten much worse — his wife is dying. In the midst of a union strike with all of its “in your face” trademark frustrations and standoffs between a company and its workers, Ernie and a cast of connected characters propels the book’s tonal message of redemption forward in a mix of first and third person narratives.

Wood deftly pulls each of her story’s protagonists out into the open —front and center — for the reader to get a good look at. These are people we might know or — at the very least — are shadows of pure human interactions we all have encountered. Wood’s characters, though flawed, try their very best to fulfill that most basic and eternal human emotion — love — like the unwavering love of a husband, of an older brother, a dying wife, an absent granddaughter or even a criminal, years later, seeking redemption.

The opening title story is the book’s foundation. And like the pieces of wood lovingly placed and nailed into the form of an ark, each story that follows maintains a familial grip on that wooden symbol of love that sits in Ernie’s yard. What began as a creative whim to delight his wife becomes reality, a symbol of unrelenting love.
“He stayed through lunch, and was set to stay for supper until Marie remembered her dog and made him go home. As he turned from her bed, she said, ‘Wait. I want my ark.’ She lifted her finger to the windowsill, where the boat glistened in the filmy city light. And he saw that she was right: it was an ark, high and round and jammed with hope.”

In the last story “Shuffle, Step” we find Ernie again, only this time he is in an unlikely friendship with a girl who lives in the neighborhood. Raising money for her middle school jazz band, she sells Ernie a raffle ticket, which turns out to be the winning ticket. His prize is dance lessons, which he reluctantly agrees to attend with the girl. On the day she gives Ernie the news she spots the forlorn ark.
“I watched you build that boat,” Francine said. “Ark,” Ernie corrected her. “It was an artistic inspiration.” “I knew that,” Francine said. “Everybody wondered what the heck you were doing. You know what I told them?” “I can’t say as I do.”
“I told them creativity can’t be thwarted.” She blinked a few times. “That’s what our band director always says. He’s an extremely smart man. Ernie pondered this for a moment. “My wife liked it,” he said.

Between these bookends of exceptional stories are more exceptional stories. All are connected, yet separately strong, unique and remindful of who we may be or people we may know as a friend, neighbor, confused teenager or loving husband, father or grandfather.

This is an emotional read, a good for the soul sort of book — one to savor. I laughed, cried and turned down the corners of some pages knowing I would revisit them, just like a long lost relative or friend. That is the essence of a good story, to make you forget and remember all at the same time.

Short story writing is not easy: the form is tight, at times constrictive and requires the best a writer has. But to connect a number of short stories into a singular theme and consistently maintain that all-important rhythm while not losing the reader, well, that’s an art form, and Wood is an artist. With this work she has captured the soul of a Maine mill town, its inhabitants, both good and bad, along with its quirkiness and traditions.