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The Weir
The Weir, written in 1943, takes place in a small island fishing village during the years before World War II and is set against a backdrop of hard work and struggle. Ruth Moore brilliantly and authentically captures the characteristics of coastal Maine and its people while using them to write a story of universal human drama featuring two primary families who feud, gossip, and struggle while being battered by the relentless tides of change sweeping over their community and their entire way of life.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1943
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About the author
Ruth Moore
27 books29 followersRuth Moore (1903–1989) was an important Maine author of the twentieth century. She is best known for her honest portrayals of Maine people and evocative descriptions of the state. Now primarily thought of as a regional writer, Moore was a significant literary figure on the national stage during her career. Her second novel Spoonhandle spent fourteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in the company of George Orwell, W. Somerset Maugham and Robert Penn Warren. In her time, Moore was hailed as "New England's only answer to Faulkner".
In 1940 Ruth met Eleanor Mayo, an aspiring writer also from Maine, and the two soon became a couple. They returned to New York where Ruth got a job with The Readers Digest while writing her first novel, The Weir, which was published in 1943.
In 1940 Ruth met Eleanor Mayo, an aspiring writer also from Maine, and the two soon became a couple. They returned to New York where Ruth got a job with The Readers Digest while writing her first novel, The Weir, which was published in 1943.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
February 23, 2013
A tense story of Maine island people in the 1930s. The principal characters, Hardy and Josie Turner, along with their sons Leonard and Haral, confront the challenges of their daily lives, involving work (fishing), family, and community, during a time of social change. Old traditions, that once made island life fulfilling, have withered away, forcing the family to find new ways to live with quiet integrity and competence in settings where these values become the subject of ridicule and humiliation. Tart language throughout the book rings with authenticity, situations that arise feel based on direct experience. If the characters are martyrs in any way, which they would deny, they accept each indignity with a ripe curse and get back to work. The landscapes of the island and mainland harbor towns, the two main settings for the book (though Boston also makes an appearance), are described with observant detail. The world beyond these settings is ignored: religion, politics, war or the threat of war, the Depression and its aftermath, none of this enters the book, making the island story of the Turner family feel all the more claustrophobic. Nothing is romanticized here, yet the author's pride of place is strongly evident: the ideal of Maine's potential worth underlies every sentence.
Related: Spoonhandle, Ruth Moore, 1946
Related: Spoonhandle, Ruth Moore, 1946
July 14, 2014
I loved this book. My favorite read of the year so far. I can't wait to get all of her books! If you love Maine and stories of her islands, coast and her people you will want to search out Ruth Moore books.
The story centers around Comey Island. The main family is Hardy and Josie Turner and their 3 children and Hardy's elderly mom who lives with them. Generations of Turners lived and fished on Comey Island. Hardy has been tending a fishing weir for several years and not made any money from it. He's discouraged and depressed. Wants to leave the island, but yet can't bring himself to break from it as it is a part of him and his way of life. The rough Maine winters and summer storms are working against him. He got an education when he was young and was set to become a businessman but the pull of the island brought him home. He sees himself as a failure.
His oldest son Leonard chose to live on the island and fish. He is partners in a trawler boat with his best friend Joe Comey and Joe's older brother Morris. Morris is a bad man and adds the spice to this story. He is very intimidating and everyone is a little afraid of him. Joe and Morris live in the family home with their widowed mom and youngest brother Saylor. Morris had went away and traveled the world on commercial fishing boats and only came home when his father was drowned in a fishing accident. He has only disdain for the island and its people.
There is conflict and gossip and the island has become a boiling pot. The Turners long for the days of old when it was a tight community working together. We get an inside look at a way of life disintegrating.
There's a love triangle between Leonard, Alice Lacey and Orin. Will she give up her dreams of the city and marry Leonard? Or marry Orin because he is so easy going and will do whatever she wants? Will Leonard give up the island and fishing to make Alice happy?
There is a terrible fishing accident and a young man is dead. Was it an accident or was it murder? The story really builds in tension and suspense. Hard to put down.
It's set in the 1940's, Haral and Saylor are hooked on a movie serial, The Green Archer and can't wait for Saturday nights to go to the mainland to the movies. The families that work in the sardine factory make .30 cents an hour! There's no electricity on the island or indoor plumbing. All of these details make a fascinating trip back to the '40's. I loved it!
Ms. Moore writes wonderful, full characters. Her use of local dialect adds depth to her characters and creates a strong sense of community. You invest in these people and I am sure I will find myself thinking about them for a long time.
The story centers around Comey Island. The main family is Hardy and Josie Turner and their 3 children and Hardy's elderly mom who lives with them. Generations of Turners lived and fished on Comey Island. Hardy has been tending a fishing weir for several years and not made any money from it. He's discouraged and depressed. Wants to leave the island, but yet can't bring himself to break from it as it is a part of him and his way of life. The rough Maine winters and summer storms are working against him. He got an education when he was young and was set to become a businessman but the pull of the island brought him home. He sees himself as a failure.
His oldest son Leonard chose to live on the island and fish. He is partners in a trawler boat with his best friend Joe Comey and Joe's older brother Morris. Morris is a bad man and adds the spice to this story. He is very intimidating and everyone is a little afraid of him. Joe and Morris live in the family home with their widowed mom and youngest brother Saylor. Morris had went away and traveled the world on commercial fishing boats and only came home when his father was drowned in a fishing accident. He has only disdain for the island and its people.
There is conflict and gossip and the island has become a boiling pot. The Turners long for the days of old when it was a tight community working together. We get an inside look at a way of life disintegrating.
There's a love triangle between Leonard, Alice Lacey and Orin. Will she give up her dreams of the city and marry Leonard? Or marry Orin because he is so easy going and will do whatever she wants? Will Leonard give up the island and fishing to make Alice happy?
There is a terrible fishing accident and a young man is dead. Was it an accident or was it murder? The story really builds in tension and suspense. Hard to put down.
It's set in the 1940's, Haral and Saylor are hooked on a movie serial, The Green Archer and can't wait for Saturday nights to go to the mainland to the movies. The families that work in the sardine factory make .30 cents an hour! There's no electricity on the island or indoor plumbing. All of these details make a fascinating trip back to the '40's. I loved it!
Ms. Moore writes wonderful, full characters. Her use of local dialect adds depth to her characters and creates a strong sense of community. You invest in these people and I am sure I will find myself thinking about them for a long time.
June 27, 2022
Pretty much a perfect novel
December 6, 2017
Read it in high school. It was different than I remember. Good. Definitely want to read more Ruth Moore.
June 10, 2020
The Weir is a novel about boats and fish and the fishermen who make their living on the waters off the Maine coast. Since I'm a landlocked girl, I didn't always understand the nautical terms: "hold the dory, he could hear the rote, seine poles, mooring chain, anchor rope, cheeserind, spar growth, trawl, rig, punt". I would have appreciated a glossary, perhaps some drawings.
Hardy and his wife Josie, with their family, live on Comey Island. Names like Weeza, Cack, Sayl [Saylor], Haral [Harold], Perley, Jarv, Jap, handed down through generations. Twenty families have forged out a life for themselves, based on a man's word and helping those who need help. There are scuffles and misunderstandings; "Josie knew what an island row meant. They started over trifles and snowballed on trifles until whole families took sides, down to the children, and for months, years sometimes, people didn't speak or have anything to do with each other."
Underneath this layer of boats and sea, are the personalities of the families. Sometimes the festering feelings have disastrous consequences.
Dig out your microscope and meet these people, delve into their lives.
I read this EARC courtesy of Islandport Press and Edelweiss. pub date 09/01/20
Hardy and his wife Josie, with their family, live on Comey Island. Names like Weeza, Cack, Sayl [Saylor], Haral [Harold], Perley, Jarv, Jap, handed down through generations. Twenty families have forged out a life for themselves, based on a man's word and helping those who need help. There are scuffles and misunderstandings; "Josie knew what an island row meant. They started over trifles and snowballed on trifles until whole families took sides, down to the children, and for months, years sometimes, people didn't speak or have anything to do with each other."
Underneath this layer of boats and sea, are the personalities of the families. Sometimes the festering feelings have disastrous consequences.
Dig out your microscope and meet these people, delve into their lives.
I read this EARC courtesy of Islandport Press and Edelweiss. pub date 09/01/20
February 8, 2022
Ah, what can I say, I'm a sucker for Ruth Moore. If you want good ol' fashioned but well-crafted storytelling--a plot with many points of view (but woven together with better narrative sense than contemporary fiction with its chapters each dedicated to a character but with voices blurring so you have to keep turning back to find out who's "talking"), rooted in place and seasons and traditions carefully observed, well-described action, a balance between brutality and hope, and characters that elude stereotyping just when you think they're too much--then this book is for you. Especially if you're interested in Maine.
September 29, 2018
This is another powerful novel from Ruth Moore. It evokes the Maine of the early part of the last century with all the beauty of its coast, the power of its ocean, the hardwork it takes to make a living and the volatile mix of people from different socioeconomic classes who vary in their temperaments, dreams, and skills. This is much darker than her novel "Spoonhandle" but just as well-written. This novel depicts people being malicious, desperate, protective, generous, kind, and loving at the extremes in lives that are so small but in their humanity are so large.
December 28, 2014
I wasn't sure about this one but I actually enjoyed it more than I anticipated! I'm looking forward to the library discussion next weekend. Moore definitely captured the spirit of hardworking Mainers. There was great tension and the characters kept the story moving!
January 27, 2021
"The Weir" is a unique story about the community of a small fishing island in Maine. It explores the lives of hardworking fishermen, feuding families, and children finding the way through their secluded island upbringing. Their village is small in size, but rich with history. The spirit of this island is fostered by connection between the characters; some who are extremely likable, others less so, and this spirit creates a story like no other.
To me, this is not a book you can easily jump right into. This is the only reason I took off one star from my rating. I thought that certain parts were a bit slow. However, the story is wonderful, and if you stay with it, the experience is entirely worthwhile. (Especially for the shocking ending!) There are also some fishing terms that are used frequently, and if you are like me- someone who has only fished once in their life, they may be unfamiliar. (For example: seine, trawl, dory...etc) I highly recommend "The Weir," because I think you will be pleasantly surprised as it unfolds.
To me, this is not a book you can easily jump right into. This is the only reason I took off one star from my rating. I thought that certain parts were a bit slow. However, the story is wonderful, and if you stay with it, the experience is entirely worthwhile. (Especially for the shocking ending!) There are also some fishing terms that are used frequently, and if you are like me- someone who has only fished once in their life, they may be unfamiliar. (For example: seine, trawl, dory...etc) I highly recommend "The Weir," because I think you will be pleasantly surprised as it unfolds.
September 14, 2021
This book felt so lived-in, and like Moore was a part of that world and understood that world, its benefits and its challenges. Much like My Brilliant Friend, it was hard to get into and hard to understand the way the pieces fit together -- until suddenly they did, and it was satisfying. But it was a long slog understanding the place and the language before the world felt familiar and the payoff felt worth it. (As an aside -- she does a masterful job with the accent.)
The despair, the hope, the striving and dreams were all laid out so well. It's a book that's hard to recommend, but that I'm glad I read. There's a lot to think about, and her writing was strong, even if it wasn't always totally accessible for me.
The despair, the hope, the striving and dreams were all laid out so well. It's a book that's hard to recommend, but that I'm glad I read. There's a lot to think about, and her writing was strong, even if it wasn't always totally accessible for me.
September 6, 2019
A weir is an enclosure of stakes and fence set in a stream as a trap for fish.
Comey Island off the coast of Maine hosts a small community of a large diversity of people, all struggling to have purpose in life as they work to make a living mostly in the fishing industry. I quote Bill, a GoodReads reviewer, “A volatile mix of people from different socioeconomic classes who vary in their temperaments, dreams, and skills.”
There are feelings of low worth; a desire for something better, something more, but what is it? The Island keeps drawing them back.
“She (Alice) didn’t suppose she wanted everything in the world - only to love her life so that it made sense.”
Comey Island off the coast of Maine hosts a small community of a large diversity of people, all struggling to have purpose in life as they work to make a living mostly in the fishing industry. I quote Bill, a GoodReads reviewer, “A volatile mix of people from different socioeconomic classes who vary in their temperaments, dreams, and skills.”
There are feelings of low worth; a desire for something better, something more, but what is it? The Island keeps drawing them back.
“She (Alice) didn’t suppose she wanted everything in the world - only to love her life so that it made sense.”
September 14, 2021
I had a 100-page hurdle to getting into this story (and I probably would have put it down if I wasn't reading it for book club) -- it just felt so confusingly foreign. That said, once I was in, I appreciated so many of the characters, several of whom made very large impressions with only a few scenes. I'm happy to have read it.
This book about a small Maine fishing village in the 1940s reminded me of "My Brilliant Friend," strangely. If you love names that you can't believe are names, bleak futures, and understand literally anything about fishing, this may be the book for you.
This book about a small Maine fishing village in the 1940s reminded me of "My Brilliant Friend," strangely. If you love names that you can't believe are names, bleak futures, and understand literally anything about fishing, this may be the book for you.
November 11, 2018
Fishing island life through the eyes of a family and their neighbors. The book didn't get interesting til just about the end. The struggle of what one wants from life and what is expected is clear in this book. Youth observing life through their elders. This family and the eight families that live on the island changed over generations where instead of helping each other to survive, gossip, petty insults, and person over group became the norm.
October 20, 2021
Picked this up in Rockland. A Maine author writing a story about islanders in the 30s or 40s. The book was published in 1943. Hard living and harder making a living. Surprising ending. The main character was taken advantage of. His son was going to do a full circle and head back to the island he just moved from. Dialogue was in local dialect. I may get her next novel from the library and scan. Not a lot of deep meaning here - but points out subsistence living.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 11, 2025
A REAL story teller!
I didn’t discover Moore until 2024. What a shame to have missed this talent of story telling all that time. My roots go to Mars Hill deep up in the “county” but I was born in another state. An avid reader and daughter of another Maine writer I was gifted with an original copy of “Spoonhandle” this year from a dear friend.
What a gift - the characters, the small towns and their interactions make for engrossing reading.
I didn’t discover Moore until 2024. What a shame to have missed this talent of story telling all that time. My roots go to Mars Hill deep up in the “county” but I was born in another state. An avid reader and daughter of another Maine writer I was gifted with an original copy of “Spoonhandle” this year from a dear friend.
What a gift - the characters, the small towns and their interactions make for engrossing reading.
October 1, 2022
I might go 3.5 on this one if that were an option. This is a classic portrayal of a particular place and time, in this case, a pre-war rural fishing community in Maine. I liked the range of characters that Moore managed to include believably, despite the small town. I think the ending was appropriate, if not as happy as some readers might wish.
April 11, 2023
While I had a little trouble getting started, I ended up loving this story. I felt there was decent character development and the 2 (main) women characters were completely relatable. This is the first Ruth Moore book I've read, bought while sailing in Maine. I will definitely be reading her others.
May 24, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters are well developed and seem so real to me, the plot wanders thru their lives, developing slowly. The view of life on a Maine island back in the early 20th century is fascinating and kept my interest to see how their lives progressed. I will be looking for more of this authors work.
April 27, 2018
Great read about small Island living. I could so relate since I live on a small Island. Islanders are hardworking individuals and it definitely comes through in this book. They are constantly thinking through everything they do. I am so glad I read this book.
October 17, 2020
The story of a family living on a small island, trying to make a living by fishing. The father is fed up with the life, and the sons are old enough to fish with a boat of their own. Their partner is a worthless guy. There is murder and a bit of a shock. I enjoyed it.
January 29, 2022
Enjoyable read. I thought the ending was fine only it could have continued on and given Gram a home back on the island. I didn't identify the place as being Maine until it was outright said in the book, not even when Alice was living in Boston.
June 8, 2022
At first, I didn't think I would like this book, but I got very interested in the characters and their interactions. I found that I really did like the book and its depiction of life on a small island off the coast of Maine.
July 30, 2023
Very well written story about a small island fishing community in Maine during the 1930s (approximately). The author lived in that world and the truth of her characters shines through. Insightful story about people grappling with the changing times on this small island.
October 10, 2023
this book was a slower read than some of the others. a slow build and then a quick burn near the end. the ending left me wanting more - what happens to Leonard and Alice? Do Sayl and Haral end up okay?! how do Josie and Hardy do??
August 22, 2025
I've been feeling a little homesick for Maine while living abroad. This takes me back to a time and life that my grandmother might have experienced. A little slow to start, but rolls you in gently like a ball of yarn, woven with a caring and dexterous hand.
December 14, 2020
A great period peace of life on a Maine Island in the '40s. Beautiful and insightful. Glad to have discovered this author
April 12, 2021
Good story but I had some problems with the dialogue, admittedly I wasn't around when it was written but I feel the dialogue was too pat.
May 27, 2021
Loved the story set on an island off the coast of Maine decades ago. Multiple interesting characters fill out the story.
July 19, 2022
Story about a Maine fishing community on a small island where everyone knows everyone else's business. At times I wished it had moved a little faster.
December 14, 2022
One of my favorite writers....full of insight.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews