The Road to Dalton

April 24, 2023
Bowring captures in her compassionate debut the rhythms of life in small-town Maine. It’s 1990 in Dalton, where the close-knit cast faces a series of problems. Rose Douglas, a waitress at the local diner, sees her doctor, Richard Haskell, after her fiancé assaults her, and blames herself for the abuse. Richard and his wife, Trudy, director of the Dalton library, have a companionable but loveless marriage; Trudy is fervently in love with Bev Theroux, whose husband, Bill, like Richard, is aware of their relationship but loath to separate from his wife. The Therouxs’ son Nate and his wife Bridget have a new baby, Sophie, a happy event clouded by Bridget’s postpartum depression. These and a handful of other characters, most prominently Sarah and Greg, who are struggling with the unique challenges of adolescence, form a colorful tapestry. By the end, an unexpected death touches everyone, a plot point that Bowring confidently steers away from melodrama, landing instead on poignant realism. Readers will want to take their time with this one.

Starred review from April 15, 2023
A small town in northern Maine is shaken by a young mother's death. Bowring's first novel centers on three couples--two middle-aged and one in their 20s with a new baby--in the fictional town of Dalton in 1990. There's a lumber mill, library, dive bar, grocery store, and diner. Bowring offers endless, rich details about life in Dalton, making a satisfying story of each chapter, expanding the emotional history of the place, yielding great depths of pain behind small, daily gestures of human connection. This gives the novel the feel of a local lovingly revealing all, carefully charting the tension the characters endure, young and old: "the silent, constant, compulsive guarding of one's biggest feelings, regrets, and desires." The town doctor Richard Haskell's marriage has long been essentially over, and, like a priest, he bears "the weight of other people's fears and secrets" yet "continues his slow art of healing what can never be healed." His wife, Trudy, the library director, is in love with Bev Theroux, who's also married to a man; their husbands know of their love and keep the secret to keep the peace between them and their neighbors, who they know would ostracize the families if the truth were out. Bev's son, Nate, is an earnest good cop whose wife, Bridget, stopped painting when she became pregnant and feels forced to hide her postpartum depression. Bowring's prose is alive with careful observation and reminiscent of Bonnie Jo Campbell's work, though with less edge and a more expansive feel and intimate care for the characters. When Bridget's sudden death sends grief rippling through everyone's lives, Bowring creates a portrait of their dignity and their unflinching, if cold, dedication to each other. An impressive debut bursting with detail and love for the town it brings to life.

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