| Once Upon a Time on the Banks takes place inMattagash, the same backwoods Maine villagethat provided the setting for The Funeral Makers--a first novel celebrated by The New York TimesBook Review as "hilariously irreverent, comic,tragic, and lyrical." Cathie Pelletier s new bookopens on the first day of spring in 1969, the dayAmy Joy Lawler--descendant of Protestantsettlers, granddaughter of a missionary to China,daughter of a schoolteacher who ended his life insuicide--has announced her impending marriageto a young man of French-Canadian descent.Amy Joy s mother, Sicily, has taken to her bed inprotest. Across town, the wives of the two no-account Gifford brothers have begun a bloodfeud precipitated when Goldie Gifford corneredthe market on Christmas tree lights at a post-holiday sale; and the Gifford brothers themselves,Pike and Vinal, are looking forward to new oppor-tunities for hubcap theft, disability-benefit fraud,and soap-opera monitoring. In Portland, eighthours drive downstate but light-years away, AmyJoy s Aunt Pearl is longing to return to Mattagash;her husband Marvin Ivy is experiencing a supplyshortage in his funeral business; their son Marvin,Jr., is having an affair with Monique Tessier, abosomy, violet-eyed secretary at the funeralhome; his wife is looped on Valium and hookedon The Price is Right; and their son Marvin III, hasdropped out of school and been busted forDriving While Intoxicated. What happens when this lively assortment ofcharacters (and more) comes together by theMattagash River for Amy Joy s wedding is thestory of Once Upon a Time on the Banks--a bookabout families, about heritage, about place, thatcombines ribald humor with tenderness and arare breadth of vision. Cathie Pelletier is thatrare thing, a real storyteller: one whose literary |
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