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Madeleine Blais

Author of In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle

6+ Works 323 Members 6 Reviews

Works by Madeleine Blais

Associated Works

Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave (2007) — Contributor — 64 copies

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Reviews

This was a really interesting memoir of life and times of a family summer home on Martha's Vineyard as it was being sold. I have spent just a little time on the island, never in the summer, but loved finding out historical and personal facts about it.
 
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mchwest | 1 other review | Jan 4, 2019 |
I’m a sucker for memoirs about selling old, family owned Cape Cod homes since I love the island that much. That’s why I loved The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home by George Howe Colt. He evoked the charm, the family, the sadness when his family sold their summer home. I hope To the New Owners by Madeleine Blais would evoke the same emotions, but alas, it did not.

Instead, Ms. Blais, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, described life on Martha’s Vineyard, the growth of the Vineyard from a whaling town to a summer destination for the elite, and then, to some extent, life with her family.

To the New Neighbors is not a love story about a somewhat ramshackle summer home, lived in for fifty years by her in-laws’ family, that the author is sure will be knocked down and replaced by a McMansion. It is more a psychological study of the island, the residents’ desire for privacy, the way the island makes summer guests forget the rest of the world (until a president or two decide to vacation there), the ramifications of a breach of that privacy, etc. She touches on the life of year-round residents facing many of the same issues found on the mainland. She name drops quite a bit.

Ms. Blais is an award winning journalist and To the New Neighbors comes across more as a newspaper article than a memoir. If you are looking for a more poignant story, The Big House will be more your speed.
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EdGoldberg | 1 other review | Nov 27, 2017 |
I read this as a high schooler and adored it. I didn't grow up in precisely this environment, but it was damned close, and some of the descriptions of the girls could just as well have been about me and my friends. Particularly some of the hero-worshipping diary entries by younger girls about the older ones - that was a huge part of my closeted baby-dyke experience.
 
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JeremyPreacher | 1 other review | Mar 30, 2013 |
It was an okay book. I felt that it could have delved more into the actual basketball games and struggles.
½
 
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weejane | 1 other review | Jan 16, 2011 |

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Works
6
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2
Members
323
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Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
6
ISBNs
23

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