Preservation

by Cynthia Lang

Why leave Manhattan for a town in Maine where no one goes and nothing ever happens? Confused, bereft, but following a hunch, Lee Baldwin moves to Limmington Mills to revel in solitude and brood about her missing husband. Life has other plans. While she never forgets Charlie, Lee is pulled into the daily dramas of her flighty landlady Dolly and DollyOCOs brother, a taciturn welder at Bath Iron Works. Befriended by Maxine, store proprietor (and de facto town manager), she meets a trio of boys running wild and their mother, rumored to have heard a saint speak. Most of all, Lee benefits from HazelOCOs fierce grace, the elderly woman whose grip on life breathes energy into LeeOCOs own. Through dynamic characters, their complex struggles, and enduring spirits, Preservation evokes the lives of northern New Englanders who struggle in the shadow side of prosperity, and explores intriguing themes of a Maine culture before todayOCOs electronic times."

333 pages, ebook

First published March 4, 2014

About the author

Cynthia Lang graduated from Smith College, won a Vogue Prix de Paris, and worked as a staff writer on Glamour. After free-lancing (Glamour, Parents, Mademoiselle, Vogue Children, and New York Times Magazine), she wrote publications for the Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) and taught at the College of Communications, Boston University. Author of Sarah Carlisle’s River and Other Stories, and Preservation, she is co-author with Jerome Kagan of Psychology and Education: An Introduction (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) and with Harry Levinson, Executive (Harvard University Press). She’s traveled in Europe, Latin America, and Africa and lived in Manhattan, Cambridge, Gloucester, and Maine. With her husband John, a photographer, she lives in Tucson.

Reviews

[Xulon · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Lee Baldwin finds herself emotionally displaced following the disappearance of her husband, she withdraws from Manhattan to a small, Maine town for the winter to isolate herself. But her plans for solitude are soon forgotten as she becomes wrapped in the goings-on of the small town. From the petty problems of her landlady to developing friendships with the townspeople, Lee soon discovers the importance and impact of people in the world around her.

With genuine characters who struggle with their own obstacles, Preservation captures the lifestyle of New England before the arrival of modern times. While Lee may have her mind set on how she wants to live, her new-found friends will prove to her that life has other plans.