The Quotable Moose:
A Contemporary Maine Reader
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF NEW ENGLAND, 1994
“A rich diversity of poetry, fiction and essays are collected to celebrate the uniqueness of Maine and its people. Forty of Maine's top writers chronicle a full spectrum of moods and emotions: father and son embrace nature in Richard Gillman's uplifting poem, "Together Among the Monarchs"; a woman faces heart-wrenching loneliness in "Northern Lights" by Elizabeth Cooke. McNair's introduction does a wonderful job of setting the tone of the book while also grouping the works loosely into sections "chosen and arranged to lead the reader step-by-step into the realities in Maine." One of these "realities" that surfaces frequently is the hard, but often rewarding life of Maine natives. Perhaps writer Carolyn Chute sums it up best when she describes what small-town Maine is not: "In those other places you are a stranger. Nobody lives there long enough to make a history, gossip, rumors, truth. In those places your exterior is most important." She passionately extols the completeness of people, who are free to be themselves, she claims, and warns of efforts by the office of tourism and developers to attract outsiders to a falsified image of the state. Through the variety of settings used by the writers–islands, backwoods and small towns–readers will feel as though they have taken a statewide journey and seen life as an authentic Mainer does."
— Publishers Weekly, Starred review
Select Praise
"McNair hasn't just selected works for us to read; he's plotted a trip for us to take. And what a trip it is…By its willingness to experiment with language and to take on subjects not traditionally associated with Maine, the writing in The Quotable Moose rises frequently above regionalism to the level of the universal…This anthology offers a wealth of subjects and moods."
—Down East
"The Quotable Moose is a treasure trove of fine prose and poetry that probes diverse facets of Maine life and transports the reader in his or her mind around the state."
— Maine Times
"This well-edited gathering of short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry focuses on the old Maine and the new. Columnist Sanford Phippen tells of the rugged life on his grandparents' farm; one can almost taste the produce and feel the cold. Franklin Burroughs strikes directly at how times have changed with "Of Moose and a Moose Hunter." He marvels at the unadaptability of moose and at how stupid they are, but when a suburban man kills one and dresses it out in his garage, the act stuns the neighborhood. No bloopers here, but Carolyn Chute captures the spirit of rural America everywhere in her chatty "The Other Maine." In her Maine, you don't live close enough to see your neighbor's house, and you keep all sorts of useful things in the yard, such as tractor parts and chicken wire and buckets. Chute is worried that Maine's tourism office and myriad developers will turn Maine into plastic. She says that "what they show in ads are models in tailored reindeer sweaters on thick carpets toasting with champagne in front of a fire. Stretched out at their feet is a six-hundred-dollar dog." God forbid."
— Booklist
