Maine on the Map - The Way Life Should Be by Terry Shaw - A Review

As you may already know, Terry Shaw’s novel won a contest here on Gather.com earlier this year. The contest itself was a test of faith - for everyone involved - in their work. Because there were so many works that seemed to be passed up in the first round, many of the writers were disappointed by the results, whatever entries made it to round two. I was unfamiliar with many of them, after reading many I thought would move forward that didn’t. Though I underestimated the finalists and chose not to read most of the entries in the second and third rounds, Terry Shaw’s does stand out in my mind as something worth reading. The contest itself was brutal. It was also something that hadn’t been offered like this before. People would rate others’ works low just to be at an advantage, either the family and friends of the contestants or the contestants themselves. Then of course there were people out to ruin the contest, however way a person feels pleased by that misgiving, above all because random voting was allowed. From that experience, it was simple for many writers and their friends to pass up on the experience this website has to offer.

Maine on the Map – “The Way Life Should Be”

The Way Life Should Be is not short of a competitive piece of work by journalist/fiction writer Terry Shaw. You may have read the back of the book out of curiosity, or were aware of the synopsis during the contest’s last round. The novel tells the story of John Quinn, journalist and manager of a newspaper in Maine, whose friend was killed at a park for unknown reasons which are later shown through many characters, all of whom are murder suspects, and the only person who has a hunch toward any of them is Quinn himself. To be honest, I feel the synopsis on the back just doesn’t serve the story too well to get me interested, when actually there are a number of reasons to look into a book like this.

Through a series of motion-picture-style ebb and flow of events leaving you breathless and reading through quickly to find out the next thing, we meet people that we feel strongly about through descriptions, dialogue, and actions. The fact remains that this feels like a movie, though when things are explained in the book, we are about at an even but different suspense level to a movie such as this. Since there are explanations in the book, we are given at times statements of the obvious that tend to come across as though it IS written by a journalist. (There are even news article developments throughout the story that are quite good). Internal monologue, by the way, is a difficult thing to accomplish while writing unless a person has read really good IM before. On the other hand a person in an audience at a movie such as this is always at a suspense because none of these characters understand the danger they’re in, while we’re witness to certain people through John Quinn the further he gets into finding out who murdered his friend. Thankfully for us, there is some downtime from this to cool off.

Additionally, we’re getting to know the scenes of coastal Maine. It’s a traditional town we’re seeing in this story, and it’s traditional people, including the main character. They are not urban at all. In an urban society, being gay, bi, or transexual doesn’t shock people, whereas in a traditional small town, the people feel above it, or better and wiser and smarter than it, and ultimately a stranger to it. This is the type of people we as readers are being exposed to, however wretched it feels to understand their thoughts on that. Still, it’s a nice setting to understand a diverse group of characters in a believable enough light (and dark) to learn what we can apply to our own writing when it comes to fiction.

For those of us who DO write fiction, we may feel at odds with this book for it to state the obvious from a scene by way of understanding Quinn’s POV during the development of the story. We may see it in our own writing enough to edit more of our work. There are many places where it gets in the way of moving to the next thing, and often doesn’t come across as though we’re getting to know the main character any more than what his words and actions already do.

For example, here is a scene with Quinn and his son:

"It's okay," Jack said as he rested his cheek on Quinn's shoulder. "I know you'll take care of me."

His son still had faith in him, though Quinn couldn't understand why. Soon Jack was asleep inside his father's jacket, which was buttoned over them both. The boy felt small and fragile against him. They were lost and there was no use denying it. Walking around would only reinforce the point. Quinn decided teh best thing was to stay warm and dry and wait for daylight. 

It still offers that as an example to our writing, just as well as its strong points.

What I like most from TWLSB, besides its model to writing, its social setting, and its theatrical feel, is that we’re actually seeing Shaw himself as the lead character in different circumstances. This lends a creative touch to a story that most people don’t think to write and has much more historical/moral value (given the controversies and conspiracies) than what I think most works of fiction are (entertainment and money machines).

Shaw has a wider range of understanding situations than most first-time writers. He likely studied writing fiction prior to accomplishing this story. Some people are at odds with him winning the contest since he would’ve had a fair shot with an agent. That is what I like least about this particular book, but it won’t stop me from reading more from him or stop me from writing more.

That being said, I think this is a great book that is well worth reading through to learn more on writing and also to feel a certain suspense that has some resolution in the end. Some of it will really surprise you. Despite its drawbacks, I felt that most of the descriptions were strong and carried through to the next scene well enough for publishing and at a surprisingly professional level for a first time author. Many of the characters are rendered believably in scenes that really take you to different and unique places. Any of what I've shared here doesn't make it any less worth reading, so do yourself a favor and get this book.