George Smith, beloved Maine columnist, says Irene Drago’s new novel is “Wonderful!”
April 3, 2020Book Reviews, Life, Maine
By George Smith
I loved Irene Drago’s first novel, and have been looking forward to her new book, The Maine Point, published by Maine Authors Publishing. It’s really good.
There is a lot of things I like about Irene’s novels, including that they are set in real Maine places, many of which I have spent time in. For example, in an early chapter a couple spends a night in the Press Hotel in Portland. Linda and I enjoyed a travel column visit there which included a fantastic dinner and breakfast.
Some of this story is set in Bath, another place Linda and I enjoyed and wrote many travel columns about. We loved the Inn at Bath and the restaurant Solo Bistro. And in an early chapter, a man tells another person that his mother was from Lubec. Well, so was my mother!
Irene’s characters and stories are also very real, and sometimes you may feel that you are in the story. In The Maine Point, the stories go back and forth between the late 1930s and 2018 to 2020. And some of the characters in the later story are descendents of those in the early story.
Both stories will keep you reading, and I must say, because we are stuck in our home due to the corona virus, Irene’s book really improved the three days I spent reading it.
You may want to read Irene’s book, Daughters of Long Reach first, because The Maine Point is a sequel to that novel.
Irene grew up in a Navy family, and actually once worked for the Defense Department as a Russian analyst. Eventually she and her husband moved to Bath, where she won the Spirit of Bath award. Irene and her husband spend a lot of time boating around Casco Bay with their kids and grandkids.