Weld, William F. Stillwater: A Novel.

Coming-of-age novels usually reflect the childhood or adolecence of thier writers, and Stillwater by Massachusetts former governor William Weld does just that. Much of what suggested the filling of the Quabbin Resevoir over the five small towns in Western Massachusetts mirrors Weld's childhood experiences on Long Island, New York. Weld's research skills are prominently displayed in this lyrical account of 15-year-old Jamieson Kooby who is reflecting back on his boyhood in the wooded farm country of the valley, as are his idyllic memories of fishing for river trout, hunting deer and coaxing out cantankerous snapping turtles.

Jamieson and his chums, among them the orphaned Hannah, explore the tunnels of abandoned mines and railway tunnels, befriend a hobo called Hammie, and uncover political intrigue in as natural and unspoiled a way as the rampant green hills and blackberry bushes surrounding them.

The author's prose is spare in his third book and finely tuned in understatement. The overwhelming dilemmas facing the inhabitants of that valley is reflected by the individual characters that people Jamie's life--among them the oily Lawyer Kincaid, the tipsy Doc Crocker, the relentlessly moral Grandma Hardiman, and the everyman hobo Hammie. Jamie discovers the power of sex, the legacy of friendship, and the sorrow of never going home again as he recounts his last year in the doomed valley.

The narrator's voice is the much older and wiser Jamieson, and the only regret I have after reading the book is the feeling that his life probably peaked at 15, and I would have liked to have known a bit more of his later years. This bittersweet journey to political decision and the human ramifications of that tumultuous decision is beautifully written and leaves an evocative overview that lingers as the real consequences do.

Leane M. Ellis, February 6,2002.