Philip Marsten - a sailor - buys a majestic plot of land while sailing around Maine in the 1880s. He builds a beautiful house he names Windswept that becomes the ancestral seat of the very prominent Maine family. This is the story of the Marsten family, covering from the 1880s to the beginning of World War II. I enjoyed this story although it was a little longwinded. I generally like books about houses and family relationships. I give it an A+! ( )

An idyllic novel written in the 1930's about a mythical Maine coastal family. The plot-less story was more a diary of a family from post-Civil War America to the eve of WWII. At it's best the book was a prosaic and colorfully descriptive ode to the Maine coast, the classics, and Emersonian New England thought. At it's worst it was a teenager's novel from the 1930's. Having worked a number of years in Maine out of doors and enjoying the coast as I have this book definitely struck a cord. A hint of a different life from another time. ( )

Books in process are scattered all over this place. ‘Night stand’ books get finished faster than any others (just ~one~ more chapter before I turn off that light…). This title was my latest ‘car’ book, those I read while waiting for the munchki to emerge from their activities in various places, school, karate, friend’s homes. Over the years, five children’s worth of waitings have yielded a lot of finished books. But I’m afraid that this poor, thick, book suffered from being too long in the car during a dry season of waitings. It was a very long time between start and finish on this one. And nothing about it prompted me to push it into ‘night stand’ status.

This is a multi-generational saga set on the coast of Maine. The setting was drawn with gorgeous sweeps of her pen – beautifully done! The characters were fully and well written. The story - I don’t know if it was dull, or being long drawn out, just seemed so to me. It spoke of familial love, education, religion – Catholicism and Protestantism, war, boating, seasons, cranberry picking, house building, fishing, gardening . . . but it never seemed to go anywhere. I loved Maine and wanted to love this book.

But, I’m afraid it’s getting a mediocre . . . ( )