Coming of age in coastal Maine
New York, 2003: HarperCollins
228 pages; hardbound; $23.95
Officer Friendly is a collection of short stories in the first published book of author Lewis Robinson. Robinson, who grew up in Maine, lives in Portland. He has created a locale on the coast of Maine vaguely four hours above Portland – Point Allison – related to all 11 stories.
The complexity of life is a consistent themes here. While knowing that happiness and success are worthy goals, residents of Point Allison cope with failure, frustration, disappointment, heartache and loss. Perhaps they cynically expect that these are what define reality. But the point of Robinson’s stories is not to prove that per se, or to present it as some larger truth.
The real point is to consider what happens when a “coming of age” protagonist (all are in their late teens to twenties) is under stress. It is about the process of maturing and testing definitions of ourselves. We have grown up under the tutelage of family and friends and learned to do things for certain reasons. Will those behaviors always work, be the best choice, the wisest action? What happens if we begin to rewrite the rules and break new ground? Is this betraying our parents? Will there be a safety net? Robinson’s characters flesh out random but defining moments in becoming adults. When your father turns out to be planning an art heist as part of spending your birthday with you, can you be disappointed? Outraged?
When you’re introduced to your mother’s new husband’s family and it seems incumbent that you gain their acceptance, is it normal to think you should do anything it takes for that inclusion? When you begrudgingly accept help from a Point Allison resident who pointedly makes you feel uneasy as an outsider, is it natural to feel defensive, protective and edgy? And act on it because you feel provoked? When you’re an ex-hockey player forced into acting in your high school’s musical, is it normal that your aggression, confusion and hormones would converge on stage during a performance? Is it understandable for a pregnant woman to be fascinated with the slaughter of domestic rabbits and feel some empowerment as a result of helping kill them?
All of Robinson’s characters are nudged into slightly surreal situations where these thorny questions loom large. That the situations are not typical is offset by the setting of Point Allison, which is drawn with some dark and ominous tones. The characters and situations seem more credible in that murky context. We are sympathetic to the dilemmas and cheering for resolution, comfort and success. But would that equal happiness?
Robinson succeeds for the most part in involving us in these slice-of-life vignettes. Intrigued by the community of Point Allison, we are drawn into its tangle with local color, humor and irony. We can, besides being entertained, ponder the choices and outcomes illustrated and come away feeling – as we hope for the characters – a little wiser and no worse for the “where.”