What Ruth does (hang around with her eccentric island friends, fall in love, organize the lobstermen) makes for an engaging book that's all the more charming for its rather lumpy, slow-paced plotting. Gilbert delivers a kind of delicious ethnography of lobster-fishing culture, if such a thing is possible, as well as a love story and a bildungsroman. But best of all, she possesses an ear for the ridiculous ways people communicate. One of Mrs. Pommeroy's young sons, "in addition to having the local habit of not pronouncing r at the end of a word--could not say any word that started with r.... What's more, for a long time everyone on Fort Niles Island imitated him. Over the whole spread of the island, you could hear the great strong fishermen complaining that they had to mend their wopes or fix their wigging or buy a new short-wave wadio."

The beauty of Gilbert's book is that she gives us an isolated rural culture, and refuses to settle for finding humor in its backwardness. Instead she gives us a community of uneducated but razor-sharp wits, and produces an impressive comic debut. --Claire Dederer

Product Description
On two remote islands off the coast of Maine, the local lobstermen have fought savagely for generations over the fishing rights to the ocean waters between them. Young Ruth Thomas is born into this feud, the daughter of one of the greediest lobstermen in Maine. Eighteen years old, as smart as a whip, and irredeemably unromantic, Ruth returns home from boarding school determined to throw her education overboard and join the "stern men." As the feud escalates, she helps work the lobster boats, brushes up on her profanity, and eventually falls for Owney Wishnell, a handsome young lobsterman. "Funny, clever and wise" (Seattle Times), STERN MEN captures a feisty American spirit through this unforgettable heroine who is destined for greatness despite herself.

"Stern Men" will be compared to "The Shipping News" but I didn't laugh as hard, though Gilbert's writing is clever and her observations wry. The protagonist is a female who pretty much stays where she was born, not a male who leaves home. Also, the disappearing culture of lobster men and their families is different from the tourist town culture depicted in "News." Where Annie Proulx introduced each chapter of her book with a little epigram on knot tying, Gilbert introduces each chapter in her book with a relevant blurb on lobsters that seems somehow to mirror Ruth's life.

The book will also be compared to "Snow Falling on Cedars" because the characters live in an island community where everyone knows everyone and there are ethnic overtones (Swedes on Courne Haven Island and Italians and Scots Irish on Ft. Niles). All the locals rely on fishing for a living, and like the seamen in "Snow" there are petty rivalries that result in death.

"When I was a child I spoke as a child." In the beginning of the book, Ruth sees the world as a child would, and tries to make sense of it from a child's perspective. The text and dialogue reflect her childish thoughts in short direct sentences. She learns to hide under the kitchen table and become invisible. As Ruth matures, her thoughts and the book become more complex. On occasion Ruth still hides.

Stern Men are the men who go out to sea with the lobster fishermen. They are the second fiddles who supply the physical strength to haul the lobster pots up and down. They are essential, they do the grunt work, but they are not the masters of their own fates. Many of the stern men eventually become the masters of their own ships. Stern men is an analagy for Ruth's maternal lineage. In the beginning they are pretty much taking orders and doing the grunt work. By the end, Ruth is the master of her own destiny.


Rare talent shows in first novel   May 18, 2000
 24 out of 25 found this review helpful

Don't wait for it to come out in paperback, it's that good. It's like a good movie: you forget to be sophisticated and think about plot and character, you just get absorbed into what feels like the real life of these people, and this place.

It's hard to believe that I've read two such good first novels in such a short space of time: Last month it was Brauner's "Love Songs of the the Tone-Deaf," and now "Stern Men." Both of these novels take you to a place that you didn't really know existed in this vast United States. Very absorbing!


Clever Author   July 26, 2000
 20 out of 20 found this review helpful

Elizabeth Gilbert has written an unusual and readable book. She embellishes a simple tale of feuding Maine islanders with eccentric characters who, improbably but successfully, strive to get along (or not) in their peculiar social system.

Ruth, the protagonist in the story, is a blunt-spoken,independent, sometimes foul-mouthed young woman who has no trouble speaking her mind to the various fogies and other adults who all seem to know what is best for her. Her fresh, sarcastic, and witty responses make her come alive to the reader and provide plenty of laughs.

The novel does drag at about midpoint and delivers a fast and implausible ending that seems to have been thrown together without any preparation for the reader. Still, this is a refreshing story and a thoroughly enjoyable summer read. And the lobster facts at the beginning of each chapter are interesting as well as tied to the behavior of the book's characters. This one is worth your time and $$$.


Read it at the library, now I'm buying it in hardback   May 17, 2000
 18 out of 19 found this review helpful

Oh...a wonderful book. Great characters, and a slow, meandering and completely engaging storyline. I also really enjoyed the quiet, understanted Maine comedy. As a frequent and lifelong visitor to Maine, I can definitely vouch for the fact that Gilbert has *nailed* the pace and dialogue of the people she portrays. Such good work. Buy it, take it to Maine and enjoy.