TIME OUT OF MIND
By
Rachel Field, through her juveniles, her poetry and a quaint bit of Americana, entitled God's Pocket, has demonstrated her thorough understanding of the Maine background and people. Now in this, her first adult novel, she gives us a homespun tale of the Maine Coast, with sailing vessels fast disappearing, steam taking business from Maine shipyards, and summer visitors making inroads. The central character is the daughter of the housekeeper to the Fortunes, shipbuilders for generations, living in a vast old fashioned house in the midst of timber lands near Portland. The family and the community are seen through her byos; her observations on the sea, the pines, the homely settlers, the newcomers, make drama beneath a philosophy, and emotion quietly unfolded. A philosophical book, carved out of the very soil of Maine. Not for those who want swift action and highly keyed drama, but for those who seek a quiet love story against a background of Nature.