BUSHNELL ON BOOKS:
THE MAINE POINT
Bath author Irene Drago won several awards for her 2017 debut novel “Daughters of Long Reach,” a historical romance spanning two centuries of Bath history and multi-family relationships.
“The Maine Point” is the sequel to that first novel, and Drago continues with the same plot structure: families connected generations apart now set in the 20th and 21st centuries.
…The strength of this story, however, is in the years 1936-1943, with Goss- and McGowan-family women leaving Maine to begin exciting new careers in New York City. Small-town cousins Penny McGowan and Stella Goss experience life in the big city, with its social and cultural expectations governing a woman’s role in business and romantic opportunities.
Both young women are naïve but smart, considerate and ambitious, qualities necessary to navigate society and the uncertainties of World War II. Penny and Stella thrive in work and love, while suffering heartache and loss.
Drago’s careful plotting allows the three family connections to slowly emerge. However, there are no villains,…just a tender story of fiction and love. Perhaps Anna said it best: “History is a myth shaped by the storytellers.”