Pete and Alice in Maine

 

Pete and Alice in Maine by Caitlin Shetterly

Fiction

2023

Finished on January 23, 2026

Rating: 4.5/5 (Excellent)

Publisher's Blurb:

Reeling from a painful betrayal in her marriage as the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold in New York City, Alice packs up her family and flees to their vacation home in Maine. She hopes to find sanctuary--from the uncertainties of the exploding pandemic and her faltering marriage.

Putting distance between herself and the stresses and troubles of the city, Alice begins to feel safe and relieved. But the locals are far from friendly. Trapped and forced into quarantine by hostile neighbors, Alice sees the imprisoning structure of her life in this new predicament. Stripped down to the bare essentials of survival and tending to the needs of her two children, she can no longer ignore all the ways in which she feels limited and lost--lost in the big city, lost as a wife, lost as a mother, lost as a daughter, and lost as a person. 

As the world shifts around her and the balance in her marriage tilts, Alice and her husband, Pete, are left to consider whether what keeps their family safe is the same thing as what keeps their family together.

Had I stumbled upon this novel in a bookstore, I would have bought it simply for the beautiful cover art. But I had been seeking out a copy at every independent bookstore we visited last year, finally finding a copy at Winter River Books in Bandon, Oregon. After reading a friend's glowing review of Shetterly's debut novel, I was eager to read it, and now I'm happy to own a copy since it will be one to read again.

I love a novel that pulls me in from the opening lines, keeping me reading late at night, inhaling it in two short days. I also don't mind reading about Covid and the lockdown, which in some ways reminds me that we can do hard things. I've read a few novels that are centered around the pandemic (Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult, Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, and most recently Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout), and Shetterly's didn't disappoint. Her writing is reminiscent of Catherine Newman's (We All Want Impossible Things, Sandwich, and Wreck), and the minute I finished this book, I searched the Internet to see if she had more to offer. I was happy to see that she has a follow-up, The Gulf of Lions, which is due out in May. 

My only quibble about the novel has to do more with the characters than the writing. The eldest daughter's attitude and mouthy attacks on her little sister and her mother made me want to shake her. Alice's husband is no prince, either. And yet I loved this compelling book about marriage and parenthood, warts and all.

I thought this was a lovely passage:

Anyway, the peonies, yes. There's that Jane Kenyon poem where she calls them "outrageous flowers." This year, seeing them in bloom in Maine for the first time, my first June here, and taking the time to really watch them go from those tight little balls to these luxurious Victorian pom-poms, I have seen what she meant. And then, as if they know how overly--no, outrageously--blessed they are with good fortune, rather than hold their heads high with pride, they droop like little supplicants, heads down, apologizing. 

Highly recommend!