Stitch in Time

In these observations on the inhabitants of his Maine seacoast village Mr. Gould addresses important matters. For example there is the question of why there are two churches in a town of 800 souls some of whom were atheists. It seems that the split between the two congregations was a matter of both free will and logic. The devotional division was caused by the question of whether Balaam''s ass spoke or whether Balaam just said his ass spoke. There is more wonderfully much more in this joyful journey into the mind and memory of John Gould: how giving a child a calf to raise provides top-notch instruction in agronomy economics subsistence and merchandising as well as milk in the shoes; how lobstermen can communicate without uttering a word; or his comment on women''s yearning for equality: If lovely woman stoops for the folly of equalizing herself with man God''s great mistake she deserves what she gets.John Gould as everyone knows lives in Friendship Maine. He is the author of twenty books most recently his first novel No Other Place. A Maine writer he is a national treasure.