NORTH BY NORTHEAST 2: NEW SHORT FICTION BY MAINE WRITERS

Littoral Books of Portland is a small press featuring the fiction and poetry of Maine writers, and its short-story collections have earned high praise. Affection for short-fiction writing is best explained by novelist Emma Donoghue (b. 1969): “The great thing about a short story is that it doesn’t have to trawl through someone’s whole life; it can come in glancingly from the side.”

This is Littoral Books’ second short-story offering following 2019’s “North By Northeast,” showcasing the talents of 16 writers. The collection is edited by publisher and acclaimed novelist Agnes Bushell. And Donoghue is correct: A writer doesn’t need 300 pages to tell a good story, and these 16 contributors show just how well it can be done.

These stories touch on topics of social conscience, humanity and the complexities of human behavior. Subjects include homelessness, dysfunctional families, immigrant anger and frustration, racial prejudice, sexuality, grief, weakness, self-serving denial and at least one close call.

In award-winning Jodi Paloni’s story “An End to It,” 70-year-old Vera deals with the death of her younger brother while struggling with the almost never-to-be love for her high-school sweetheart and her relationship with her husband — “You can’t help loving who you love.”

Best are “Briar Lake” by Brett Willis and “Fives” by Nicole d’Entremont. In the first story a father and son are unemployed, live together and find themselves competing for the same job. Their solution is priceless, warm and tender. In the second story, Rita is an observant and astute diner waitress who rates couples’ marriages on the 1-to-10 Marriage Longevity Scale, and her appraisal of an ex-convict and his long-suffering wife is spot on.

THE ISOLATION ARTIST: SCANDAL, DECEPTION, AND THE LAST DAYS OF ROBERT INDIANA

Famous Maine artist Robert Indiana (1928-2018) admitted: “I am an artist, not a businessman.” Sadly, he was correct, and that made him easy prey for hucksters and grifters who fleeced him of millions of dollars before and after he died, according to author Bob Keyes.

“The Isolation Artist” is award-winning Maine journalist and art writer Bob Keyes’ stunning story of Indiana’s life, art and wealth, and how the people he trusted to look after his health, welfare and finances failed him tragically with their shameless greed. This story was well reported by the media after Indiana’s death in 2018, with lurid coverage of allegations of neglect, elder abuse, suspicions of how and when he actually died, outright theft of money and artwork, lawsuits and countersuits.

Keyes, however, untangles the mess and clearly explains how the life of Robert Indiana ended so miserably, alone and isolated, with his body, estate and legacy plundered by the people he thought would protect him.

This is a true-crime drama, complete with rumors, accusations, suspicion, Pinkerton guards, private detectives, the FBI, lawyers, art dealers, consultants, shysters and opportunists with their hands in the till. And Keyes names them all. There was no proof of foul play in Indiana’s death, but plenty of evidence of malfeasance, shady legal and art deals, fraud and other disgraceful behavior.

As Keyes relates, Indiana is famous for iconic artwork like his LOVE sculpture in 1965 (work he never copyrighted), later for the sculptures HOPE and EAT, and a humorous painting called FOG (just gray paint on canvas). He settled on Vinalhaven Island in 1978, living in the old crumbling Odd Fellows Hall, intending it to serve as a shrine to himself. And that’s where he died, wealthy, but alone and in squalor.

Bill Bushnell lives and writes in Harpswell.

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