and Other Stories
$16.95
Paperback, 5.5″ x 8.5″
235 pages
ISBN 978-1-63381-137-9
by Jean Ayer
Jean Ayer describes the world of a family of Maine summer people, from their tranquil setting to the intrigues of their lives. She takes us to the members-only club where they gather and to the places some of them go to get away from it all.
She explores several ways that a beleaguered wife could deal with the unyielding eccentricity of her husband. Utterly exasperated by his increasingly stubborn behavior, she finally wants to just be rid of him. She considers several options, beginning with the futility of trying to reason with him and the repercussions for her if she leaves him. Her quest takes her from hopeful to practical to drastic, even sinister solutions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
While raising a family in Maine, JEAN AYER (1924–2013) learned to know and love the place and its people. Her home life, however, fell apart. In order to puzzle out the chain of events that led to her divorce, she studied creative writing. She wrote fictional short stories based on the progression of alcoholism in her former husband and its crippling effects on their family. The stories inspired further investigation of the seemingly inscrutable mystery of what happened. Her work on the problem was informed by her participation in Al-Anon and related programs. Fiction allowed her to weave together familiar characters and places into an intriguing mystery.