Details
Rent Pocketful of Names
Author:
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
Published: May 2007
Genre: Fiction - General
Retail Price: $22.00
Pages: 304
Synopsis
“Coomer is clearly an author of serious talent.” —The Washington Post Book World
Inhabiting an island off the coast of Maine left to her by her great-uncle Arno, Hannah finds her life as a dedicated and solitary artist rudely interrupted one summer when a dog, matted with feathers and seaweed, arrives with the tide. He is only the first of a series of unexpected visitors and is soon followed by a teenager running from an abusive father, a half sister in trouble, a mainland family, and a forlorn trapped whale. In the engrossing drama that unfolds, Hannah’s love of her island solitude competes with her instinctive compassion for others.
In this booksellers’ favorite and two-time Book Sense pick, now available in paperback, Joe Coomer offers the rugged yet stunning beauty of Maine and the lobstermen and their families who are dependent on the sea for survival. Pocketful of Names is a deeply human tale about the unpredictability of nature, art, family, and the flotsam and jetsam that comprise our lives.
Reviews
I hardly know how to describe this book, so I will equate it to a wonderful piece of driftwood that washed up on my beach. A woman, thirty-ish, an artist, lives the life of a recluse on an island, to work undisturbed. Her work sells she likes her life. Then a dog, almost drowned, finds his way to her. And another stray, a young man in danger with no other place to go. He has a girlfriend, who has a father--and then the whale arrives followed by scientists and photographers. NOTE: this is not a comedy. When everyone including the dog leaves her, she finds the island a different place. This is a love story, of sorts, love for a man, a dog, and a way of life. Read it if you are touched when a frozen heart finds the sun. Or if you love art, the sea, Maine, or painfully sensitive and intelligent people. And dont worry about the dog. He'll be okay too.