Lake People
A powerful sense of place pervades Maxwell’s accomplished, if a bit disjointed, debut. The novel tells the bittersweet tale of Alice Thornton, abandoned in the first days of her life in a boathouse in Kettleborough, New Hampshire. Alice is adopted by a childless couple and gradually begins to discover her deep connections to Kettleborough and the potent history of the women in her birth family. Among them is Eleanora, a hardy pioneer who brought her kin to the area, and eccentric Aunt Signe, who nearly drowned in Kettleborough’s idyllic lake. As she grows older, Alice longs for acceptance, seeking it with a series of men, none of whom can fill the void in her life: there’s Mike, handsome and fascinating but much too old for her; husband Josh, who doesn’t love her; and Simon, kind and well meaning, if a bit simple. In New Hampshire native Maxwell’s first offering, she slows the story’s momentum by shifting back and forth between decades. A more linear narrative might have better suited this otherwise luminous work. --Allison Block