Downeast

April 1, 2021
Rural, impoverished Washington County, Maine, is not an easy place to grow up. Georges presents the stories of five young women on the cusp of adulthood in Maine's furthest northeast county. She began chronicling her subjects, whose names she has changed due to privacy concerns, in their teens, conducting interviews and following them in their lives. Willow grew up with an "abusive, drug-addicted father, although moving in with her grandparents provided a bit of respite--until her grandmother was sent to prison for embezzling. Vivian, Willow's best friend from early childhood, has a vastly different background. Her financially successful parents had deep roots in the county, but after they divorced, Vivian faced significant emotional challenges. A gifted softball pitcher, McKenna has been hauling lobsters with her father and brother since childhood. In her teens, she saved enough to buy her own boat. As she finished high school, she was torn between offers from two colleges and her passion: becoming one of the few females in the area running their own boats. Audrey is a basketball star and a dedicated member of her school's civil rights team. Though she matriculated at prestigious Bates College, she found it to be a tough fit and transferred. Josie, the class valedictorian, was accepted at Yale, and she found herself questioning her parents' conservative religious beliefs. Each of these stories reflects the extreme challenges of life in poor, rural America, areas that are often awash with substance abuse, offer few opportunities for education, and lack decent-paying career opportunities. Georges interweaves the engaging personal tales with recent statistical information, extending the girls' experiences to illuminate a vast government failure to serve America's less-populated spaces. In mostly lyrical, always informative, only occasionally trite prose ("Fisherman here don't care for idle talk"), the author shines an important light on the sobering challenges rural youth are facing. It's almost impossible not to care about these fierce young women and cheer for their hard-won successes.

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April 2, 2021

Political and communication strategist Georges has observed that throughout Maine's rural Washington County, young women are setting high marks and pushing boundaries in the region's education, athletics, and fishing industry. So, when Georges decided to write this volume dedicated to her adoptive home, she chose Washington County's young women as her subject--focusing particularly on five teenage girls, their tumultuous high school years, and their entry into the worlds of college, work, or marriage. Georges describes five bright and talented young women who exhibit the determination and devotion to home that she says characterizes the Downeast population. The women struggle as well: one wrestles with the legacy of an abusive parent, while others are challenged by questions of faith or old-fashioned attitudes toward gender roles. Georges writes with clear appreciation for each of the young women and has a strong grasp of the complexities of the region, where economic downturns and the opioid crisis balance against its residents' deep communal ties and love for the area's natural beauty and resources. VERDICT A sensitive paean to an oft-overlooked region of the United States and the young women who live there. Recommended for readers seeking books with a strong sense of place or about girls facing the challenges of the 21st century.--Kathleen McCallister, William & Mary Libs., Williamsburg, VA

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2021
From the decks of lobster boats, inside spirited high school gyms, and into college and the wider world, author Georges follows the lives of five girls in the coastal counties of Downeast Maine. Sitting at the challenging intersection of girlhood and rural life, their stories emerge as they decide to change the course of career limitations, young marriage, and shadows of dysfunction. While Georges' narrative focuses on these girls, the Downeast Maine setting actually takes center stage as a community with deep roots and rich history. Georges respects the region's families and way of life that instill generational grit and a self-sufficient work ethic, even as she explores tragedies and dark spots in its community soul. Her characterization of Downeast is thus nostalgic without being sentimental, empathetic without being patronizing. Shaped and called back by Downeast, the young women tangle with the tension of traditional values versus new learning, past versus future--and decide whether staying means settling. Georges' lovely book will appeal to readers seeking memoirs, understanding of rural worlds, feminist values, or even travel writing.

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