MAINE

Thanks to narrator Ann Marie Lee's Boston-Irish accents, listeners have no trouble buying into the background of the three generations of Kelleher women—Alice (the Greatest Generation), Kathleen and Ann Marie (Baby Boomers), and Maggie (Generation X)—who unexpectedly converge at the family's summer home in southern Maine for a couple of weeks one summer. Each has secrets, jealous relationships with other family members, a history with alcohol, and control issues. Although Lee's reading verges on being too animated, she captures the family tensions well. To outsiders, the Kellehers are charming and capable, but in private they harbor longstanding guilt and resentments and sometimes break out into bitter disagreements, especially over the future of the family property. Listeners become invested in the characters' lives, hoping the women find forgiveness and self-acceptance by summer's end. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2011]