Stern Men

The title is a play on the job description of the person who sits in the stern of the boat and assists the lobersterman, as well as a description of the demeanor of the tough lobsterman. Gilbert successfully combines historical fact and lore on Maine coastal islands and lobster fishing to ground her novel with authenticity. Whether you have spent any time in 'Down East' Maine, as I have, or not, you will relish this wonderfully original story.


Wicked funny   March 17, 2001
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

A joyful romp of a novel that truly captures the Yankee spirit. Here is New England for you, on a platter. The characters are all too real and human and the laughs just keep bubbling up. I found myself totally engaged and had a hard time putting this book down. If you're from New England this will be like reading about the people you grew up with, even if you weren't on a small island off the coast of Maine. I sent a copies of this book to my moth-uh and sis-tuh as soon as I finished reading it. Brava! Looking forward to more from Ms. Gilbert. What fun!


Don't read the back cover   February 26, 2001
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

Stern Men was a well-written book. The characters were "real characters". The dialogue was realistic and wonderfully interwoven throughout the book. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it much better if I had not read the back cover.

What started out as an engaging book with several intriguing characters, ended up falling quite flat. While I fault Elizabeth Gilbert for my disappointment, I also must take some share of the blame. I made the mistake of reading the back cover. Thus I had certain expectations of the story line which, as I got closer and closer to the end of the book, seemed less and less likely to to be met. I kept asking myself, "When is all this stuff promised on the book jacket going to happen?" Evidentally the author thought the same thing. When it dawned on her that she was tired of writing this story and had not yet accomplished what she had set out to do, she decided to end the book abruptly and tied up everything in a very neat little 12 page epilogue.


A spot-on, Down East yarn.   February 2, 2001
 10 out of 11 found this review helpful

Gilbert deftly captures Maine's wry, Down East humor and its flat, deadpan delivery in this seriocomic tale of lobstering and survival on twin islands, twenty miles off the Maine coast. Independent, cussed, and fiercely loyal to their own islands, the inhabitants are virtually a law unto themselves as they compete for the lobster market, the only commercial venue open to them.

In a deceptively simple style and the dry, straight talk of a native telling a tale which may or may not be a "tall one," Gilbert introduces Ruth Thomas, the feisty product of a rare interisland marriage. We come to know her relatives, the friends with whom she shares her challenging and sometimes monotonous life, and we watch her grow up and deal with the problems, conflicts, frustrations, and ultimate satisfactions of her isolation on the island. As the one person who really has access to the rival "players" on both islands, Ruth is also a reluctant beacon of hope for the future of the islands.

Gilbert's warm tale of this hard life perfectly captures the cadences and rhythms of the "down Maine" speaker. Her characters sound and act real--though not one of the says "ayuh" even once! Her story of the sternmen shows them to be stern, hard men, but the story has heart, and "it's a good'un." Mary Whipple


Wonderful story, I love the heroine.   December 29, 2000
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

This was a most enjoyable read. The characters are different from anyone I know, but a very engaging group of oddballs. The language is often coarse but very befitting of the rough around the edges group, and it adds to the charm and humor. I found it to be a very funny book - not in a laugh-out-loud sense. Rather, it's full of wry chuckles. The main character, Ruth Thomas, was interesting, sympathetic, charming, tough, vulnerable, and found her way to take charge of her own destiny and gain the upper hand over those who wished to control her.

It reminded me a little of "The Shipping News", but I enjoyed these characters better than those. The description of the landscape and the lobster fishing was interesting and added to the story.

The ending was a little weak. The story simply ends witnout resolution, then jumps to an epilogue where all the loose ends are tied up summarily. I would have enjoyed it if the book were a little longer and the plot was finished in the same narrative style as the bulk of the book.