Customer Reviews

Stern Men

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Stern Men is just a great read, a highly enjoyable novel. Elizabeth Gilbert gives us a wonderful, well told story. She starts by describing the known history of two small islands off the coast of Maine: Courne Haven and Fort Niles. She quickly focuses in on the difficult birth of a baby girl, Ruth Thomas, in the late 1950s on Fort Niles. A few pages later, we meet her as an 18 year old returning home to Fort Niles after graduating from boarding school in Delaware. The story of Stern Men mainly concerns itself with what Ruth does that summer--she spends time with her idiosyncratic friends, is reuinted with her mother, who lives off the island, and finally, falls in love. While this is not a fast paced novel, I still felt compelled to read it because the story is so engaging. Ruth and her friends were in my thoughts when I was not reading the book and I couldn't wait to return to Stern Men. The book is enjoyable, the story is funny and the characters are nutty, yet still believable. I highly recommend this book.

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 $$$.

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!

As I read the first 50 pages of this book, I kept dozing off, and then around page 90 was shocked by a very big secret that kept me reading until another secret was revealed, and then another, and then I was caught like a lobster in a pot and read the whole book in two sittings. The plot line of this book is very unpredictable--an original drama to say the least.

"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.

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.

Once Gilbert sets the story up in the first 50 pages, this book becomes a generally enjoyable summer read. The protagonist, Ruth, is an interesting character, although I had a hard time believing she was so head strong, yet as vulnerable as she appeared. There was something in the way her character was written that just rubbed me a little odd. Still, the story moves well, with interesting twists and the general plot is as quirky as promised. I agree that the ending seemed rushed and somewhat contrived. I was surprised that when I was really starting to get into the story and care about not only Ruth, but others on the islands, that there were only a handful of pages left to read. I probably should have given this book four stars, but considering I read it in a beach chair facing the Atlantic ocean, it should have affected me a little more. Still, it's a worthwhile read and good summer entertainment, just nothing award-winning.

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 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!

A really fine new novel which I picked up after reading a favorable review in the NYT---and I've enjoyed the read. It's the story of an island off the coast of Maine (a fictionalized Vinalhaven, I think), mostly about the coming-of-age of Ruth Thomas, tenously-descended from the granite-quarry-owning rich family which once ran the island. It reminds me somewhat of the Bennett's Island novels by Elisabeth Ogilvie, but Stern Men has a much more modern setting and feeling. We certainly hear enough about the history of the island, its rivalry with its neighbors, and the ongoing "lobster wars" of its fishermen, but the characters are so intriguing and eccentric, the storytelling so solid, that it certainly never feels like an historical novel--nor does it feel like a romanticizing of a "vanishing way of life" and all that bushwah. These folks are grittily involved in making a buck and getting on with their lives.

I liked it as well as The Beans of Egypt, Maine or The Funeral Makers or Strong for Potatoes, all fine novels dealing with middle-to-lower-class Maine characters. A welcome addition to the genre.

I bought this book because of the comparison to John Irving (whom I love). But when I started reading it, I sensed Alice Hoffman's style. But either way, Elizabeth Gilbert has a distinct and clever voice. I highly recommend this book to anyone who just wants to feel good and be completely satisfied once the book ends. The story is clear and flows remarkably well, given the unusual subject matter. I can't wait to read more from Elizabeth Gilbert. I loved her creative style and character development. Don't miss this one! She'll be back again!