The Wooing of Calvin Parks

A familiar yellow farmhouse brings Calvin Parks back into the company of Sam and Sim Sill, twin brothers whose shared habits have given way to a stubborn quarrel. Their cousin Mary Sands presides over dinner while the brothers send their disagreements through her rather than speak directly to each other. In this humorous novel of Maine life, Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards makes ordinary meals, farm business and awkward conversation the setting for a courtship story.

Calvin's concern for his old friends becomes tangled with the possibility of marriage. A conversation about finding wives for the twins turns painfully confusing when Mary asks whether he wants her to marry one of them. Regional speech and domestic details give these exchanges their particular character, while the comedy rests on how easily kindness and good intentions can be misunderstood. Readers interested in rural American fiction will find a romance shaped by household loyalties and uncertain attempts to speak plainly.