Jim Johnson returns from World War II to his hometown and to the family business, a country inn on a lake in northwestern Maine. Johnson's return is filled with surprises—a body hidden in a garment bag in an empty cabin, his deceased father's association with bootleggers and his childhood friend, Joan Chaplin, now married but with an absent husband. His relations with Joan, and with other women, are complicated by traumatic experiences during the war which he fears may have left him impotent. Johnson's quest to find answers leads him on a cross-country journey pushing him to explore himself in a rare gem in mysteries.
About the Author
Robert M. Chute is a native of Naples, Maine and was educated, according to Chute, with varying degrees of success, at Fryeburg Academy, the University of Maine, and Johns Hopkins University. He served in the U.S. Air Force in WWII, in the Aviation Physiology Unit of a Proving Ground Command. He joined the Bates College teaching staff as Chairman of the Biology Department in 1962. Wearing his scientific hat, he wrote Introduction to Biology and Environmental Insight both published by Harper and Row. Always aware of being a steward of our earth, lakes and trees, Chute was instrumental in the formation of COLA, The Congress of Lake Associations, dedicated to the study and protection of Maine lakes. He also served as chair of a state commission concerned with genetic modification of agricultural products. During the 1960s he produced and edited a mimeograph poetry magazine, The Small Pond. Research in and Professing of Biology supported his poetry habit until retirement from Bates College in 1993. He received the Rhine Humanities Council chapbook award for Samuel Sewall Sails for Home and the Beloit Poetry Journal’s Chad Walsh Award for the poem, “Heat Wave in Concord.” Chute was awarded the 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Chute ran as an independent protest candidate for the U. S. House during the Vietnam War and is an active supporter of Veterans for Peace.
Reviews
"Ear and eye for detail, mastery of craftmanship","best colloquial imagination", "A pleasure to read", "genius lies in the powerful details he presents, the insights he offers" and "careful language, precise, with a sparse beauty," are all comments made about Robert M. Chute's poetry. In his first novel, Coming Home, Chute carries those talents with him.
Chute's style, flinty Mainers make a mystery well told. All in all, Chute has created a fast-moving story. Coming Home exudes a genuine sense of Maine's landscape and how that landscape works to shape its people…among the granite rocks and sandy shores that nourish this suspenseful story. Coming Home is more than "A Maine Mystery." It's a lasting Maine story, and Chute has told it well."
--Nancy Grape, Maine Sunday Telegram
About the Author
Robert M. Chute is a native of Naples, Maine and was educated, according to Chute, with varying degrees of success, at Fryeburg Academy, the University of Maine, and Johns Hopkins University. He served in the U.S. Air Force in WWII, in the Aviation Physiology Unit of a Proving Ground Command. He joined the Bates College teaching staff as Chairman of the Biology Department in 1962. Wearing his scientific hat, he wrote Introduction to Biology and Environmental Insight both published by Harper and Row. Always aware of being a steward of our earth, lakes and trees, Chute was instrumental in the formation of COLA, The Congress of Lake Associations, dedicated to the study and protection of Maine lakes. He also served as chair of a state commission concerned with genetic modification of agricultural products. During the 1960s he produced and edited a mimeograph poetry magazine, The Small Pond. Research in and Professing of Biology supported his poetry habit until retirement from Bates College in 1993. He received the Rhine Humanities Council chapbook award for Samuel Sewall Sails for Home and the Beloit Poetry Journal’s Chad Walsh Award for the poem, “Heat Wave in Concord.” Chute was awarded the 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Chute ran as an independent protest candidate for the U. S. House during the Vietnam War and is an active supporter of Veterans for Peace.
Reviews
"Ear and eye for detail, mastery of craftmanship","best colloquial imagination", "A pleasure to read", "genius lies in the powerful details he presents, the insights he offers" and "careful language, precise, with a sparse beauty," are all comments made about Robert M. Chute's poetry. In his first novel, Coming Home, Chute carries those talents with him.
Chute's style, flinty Mainers make a mystery well told. All in all, Chute has created a fast-moving story. Coming Home exudes a genuine sense of Maine's landscape and how that landscape works to shape its people…among the granite rocks and sandy shores that nourish this suspenseful story. Coming Home is more than "A Maine Mystery." It's a lasting Maine story, and Chute has told it well."
--Nancy Grape, Maine Sunday Telegram
