[nice copy, minor scrunching to top edge of a couple of pages, mildly bumped at spine ends, attractive bookplate on front pastedown; the mostly-white jacket is quite clean and almost flawless except for one vertical crease in each panel and along the spine (3 creases in all), almost as if it had been removed from the book and folded for storage at some point; aside from the creases, though, it's nice enough to rate as "Fine"]. A modern classic of Maine (and Franco-American) literature, selected by the Baxter Society of Portland for inclusion on its list of 100 books that best depict the history of Maine and the life of its people. It's a loosely autobiographical story of a Franco-American family, set in a fictional French/Catholic town loosely based on Lewiston, Maine, where the author spent his childhood. The book is subtitled "A Novel in ten parts," and the narrative is structured as a series of coming-of-age episodes about the title character's nine children, taking place from 1919 through 1937, with additional flashbacks to the pre-marital lives of Papa Martel and his future wife Cecile.

Maine Lewiston Franco-Americans Family Life Fathers Coming Of Age First Novel