Pete and Alice in Maine

 

                                        *free review copy* 

Title: Pete and Alice in Maine

Author: Caitlin Shetterly 

Publisher: Harper

Release Date: 7.4.23

Publisher’s Summary 

A powerful and beautifully written debut novel set against the backdrop of the chaotic spring of 2020 that intimately explores a fractured marriage and the struggles of modern parenthood. Reeling from a painful betrayal in her marriage as the Covid 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 his 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 if what keeps their family safe is the same thing as what keeps their family together.

My Review

Any stories set in 2020 will have to reference the COVID-19 pandemic. The question is just how they will do it. Future readers may find the references informative but current readers will likely be divided. Some may yearn for these stories while others turn away. It's a divisive topic and can quickly enrage a reader depending on the trajectory of the story and the intentions of the author. In Pete and Alice in Maine, debut novelist Caitlin Shetterly focuses on a certain type of family that we vaguely heard about in the first days of national news coverage of the pandemic--the privileged city dwellers fleeing to their vacation homes. After struggling to get to their Maine home and dealing with their not-so-friendly neighbors the family looks at their time there as a bit of an adventure before the novelty wears off. Alice and Pete's marital problems are still present even if they've changed their geographical location. 

"We didn’t have time to talk or fight anything out. We couldn’t go to therapy. The kids were with us constantly. There was no space, or time, to fix what had been broken, even if it could be fixed."

While it's easy to dismiss this situation as "rich people problems," Alice is relatable in that she acknowledges her privilege of essentially sticking their head in the sand: 

"When I forget, I think Covid has leveled the playing field for all of us; then I remember that I have a second house, a husband making a pile, I’m not Black. I can afford to not know and not know and not know and not know."

I liked this novel and after reading some other reviews I learned the term "pandemic-lite." Yes, the pandemic is what has driven this family to flee to Maine, but the heart of the story is the shifting family dynamics. I also want to note that this is some of the most authentic young sibling rivalry writing I have ever read. I recommend this to lovers of Pineapple Street and readers who like character driven novels.