FIRE EXIT by Morgan Talty; Tin House, 2024; 256 pages, $28.95; ISBN 978-1-959030-55-3.
FIRE EXIT
At age 54, Charles Lamosway is a man burdened by regret — regret for what he did do and for what he didn’t. And he still cannot make up his mind which is worse.
“Fire Exit” is the debut novel by Morgan Talty, a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation and the winner of eight prestigious literary awards for his short-story collection, “Night of the Living Rez” (Tin House, 2022). Talty is a masterful writer, skilled with character, emotion and atmosphere, vividly portraying people as complex, vulnerable creatures defined by their culture.
It is 2018 and Charles is a lonely white man caught between two cultures, native and non-native, with the dividing line a chasm he cannot cross, and it pains him deeply. His daughter, now a grown woman, is white but raised on the reservation as a native, and she does not know he is her father. He is desperate to tell her, but cannot find the courage, and the mother begs him not to say anything.
Charles is also tormented by guilt over his stepfather’s death in a hunting accident, his estranged mother’s rapidly declining physical and mental health, and his friend Bobby’s determination to drink himself to death. And his own lifestyle is not too healthy — booze, cigarettes, poor diet, constant worry.
For years Charles wanders in a mental fog of regret, guilt, indecision and depression, tortured by his own thoughts of what might have been. He is determined to declare himself to his daughter, but sudden events terrify him, accelerating his actions with unexpected consequences for everyone.
This is a grim story, sad yet tender and revealing, and Talty makes sure that everyone understands “we’re all alike, even when we’re not.”
ART OF PENOBSCOT BAY by Carl Little and David Little; Islandport Press, 2024; 141 pages, $34.95; ISBN 978-1-952143-50-2.
ART OF PENOBSCOT BAY
When once asked about art, an unknown pundit replied: “I don’t know what it is, but I know what I like.” And fans of Maine art will find plenty to like in this beautifully illustrated new book, “Art of Penobscot Bay.”
Brothers Carl and David Little are devoted to Maine art and artists, and their book is a magnificent tribute to Maine art in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, showcasing the talents of more than 100 artists with examples of 135 paintings. David, of Portland, and Carl, of Mount Desert Island, have already featured the art of Katahdin and Acadia. Now, it’s Penobscot Bay’s turn.
The paintings showcased are colorful, vivid and detailed, and are accompanied by short bio sketches of the artists’ backgrounds, techniques and influences. Each painting annotation also includes the medium — oil on canvas, for example — and the gallery where the art is displayed.
Maine artists you would expect to see include Marsden Hartley, N.C. Wyeth, Bernard Langlois and Jamie Wyeth. Many others may be less well-known, but are still influential in the Maine art community. Paintings depict landscapes, seascapes, ship portraits, people working and playing, islands, boats, harbors, lighthouses, and even one of dockside fuel tanks and another of a seaweed processing plant.
Impressionists, realists, modernists, and artists who practice pointillism (look that one up) are represented, exercising a great variety of medium: oil on canvas, masonite, plywood, acetate and linen, watercolors on paper, acrylic on wood and cardboard, as well as egg tempura on cradled panel, and gouache and casein on paper.
Learn about the Hudson River School, the Ashcan School and The Ten, “a self-conceived academy of American impressionism,” and why one artist proclaimed: “Don’t paint to sell. Paint because you can’t help it.”
Bill Bushnell lives and writes in Harpswell.
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