The Quotable Moose

A rich diversity of poetry, fiction and essays are collected to celebrate the uniqueness of Maine and its people. Forty of Maine's top writers chronicle a full spectrum of moods and emotions: father and son embrace nature in Richard Gillman's uplifting poem, ``Together Among the Monarchs''; a woman faces heart-wrenching loneliness in ``Northern Lights'' by Elizabeth Cooke. McNair's introduction does a wonderful job of setting the tone of the book while also grouping the works loosely into sections ``chosen and arranged to lead the reader step-by-step into the realities in Maine.'' One of these ``realities'' that surfaces frequently is the hard, but often rewarding life of Maine natives. Perhaps writer Carolyn Chute sums it up best when she describes what small-town Maine is not : ``In those other places you are a stranger. Nobody lives there long enough to make a history, gossip, rumors, truth. In those places your exterior is most important.'' She passionately extols the completeness of people, who are free to be themselves, she claims, and warns of efforts by the office of tourism and developers to attract outsiders to a falsified image of the state. Through the variety of settings used by the writers--islands, backwoods and small towns--readers will feel as though they have taken a statewide journey and seen life as an authentic Mainer does. (May)