Even though summer is edging towards fall, and I haven’t set foot on a beach in many a year, I love books that deal with bodies of water, sand and summertime. Eastern Shore Shorts: Stories Set in Berlin, Cambridge, Chestertown, Chincoteague, Easton, Rock Hall, Salisbury, St. Michaels, and Tilghman Island, by Gail Priest, fits the bill nicely. Oh—did I say I love visiting the area encompassed by the short stories in this collection? I haven’t visited the eastern portions of Maryland or Virginia that make up part of the Delmarva peninsula since before the Covid-19 pandemic. Is that a road trip I hear calling my name? Well, maybe within the next few years.
The 12 intertwined stories in this collection are about friends and family members who live in the towns mentioned in the title. The stories are spare and well written, with no extra verbiage. Even though each story has its own arc and distinguishing features, characters who are narrators in one story crop up again in other stories that are narrated by a family member or friend. Priest does a great job of portraying small-town life.
I enjoyed reading Eastern Shore Shorts because of Ms. Priest’s great writing and because of the memories it brought back of my visits to the area. I thought “Peacemaker Puppy” was the weakest story. This story seemed stilted and did not flow as well as the others.