Miles, who had promise when he was young, is now disappointed and disappointing lives in a small town in Maine that is the civic equivilent of his own life. Sustained by the church and his love for his daughter, he passively accepts the misery his ex-wife and father give him. Furthermore, he, and the whole town, are manipulated by the former owner of the mills.

Since I’m moving to Maine, I found the book somewhat dismaying – life seemed dull, not only in the sense of boring but in the sense that all the things that makes life shine, like friendship and culture and ideas were emphatically not present. As I read on, though, it turned out that life wasn’t so bad, and that opportunities were there for the taking, even for Miles. I grew to love the town and its characters, which were all well described and were able to surprise even when I thought I had them all figured out. Best of all, for all the misery on the surface, this is a very funny book.