Made For You And Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
Caitlin Shetterly's Made for You and Me, Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home is a great read for anyone who has lived in Maine.I appreciated the bits of Maine she wove into her memoir: such as the usage of the phrase, "people from away"At times I could picture myself in the places in Maine she lived and visited.However, I didn't find her part about living in the LA area particularly interesting. Although thinking about it, the whole point of the book might be to compare how horrible living and being jobless in LA was to the clean outdoors of Downeast Maine.I would be interested to read a followup memoir about how her family readjusts to life in Maine. I feel that Caitlin has a lot more to add to her tale and this book could be the beginning to a bigger story. I felt like the story was rushed. That she was breathlessly trying to tell us about the terrible, horrible, not so good, very bad thing that happened to them. While they blame the economy, some of it was just poor planning on their part, no contingency plan, and a want of more. Wasn't that what took them to the westcoast? Although she does appear to finally "get it" to the end, with the simplicity thing.I wanted to love this story, the idea of going out to come back home, but really didn't have a lot of empathy of Caitlin. Her politics and other world views didn't line up with mine at all, but NPR, what did I expect. The last couple of chapters she seems more grounded, although hurrying through the story. I'm uncertain how representative their story is of what people are going through. Although she talks about living on the street, she always had options, and she knew that.
What do You think about Made For You And Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home (2011)?
This was not my favorite book, but something compelled me to finish, to see how her life ended up.
—pencheng
Want to support a Maone writer but it was so "poor me" in attitude that it was a bit annoying.
—airlinebuff
Read it one sitting. Incredible. Cried, laughed, etc. etc.
—dafne
Interesting story- It kept me engaged throughout
—Aegocerus
