Recently I was able to travel to Vinalhaven, an island in Penobscot Bay. I hadn't been there since high school decades. Island life is definitely intriguing, and a different way of life.
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| Maine State Ferry Service dock on Vinalhaven |
Although some of the health stuff may not be to some's taste (it doesn't get too graphic), the stories of hardscrabble, tough Maine people, who live on an island rings so true to my experiences of growing up in Maine. I loved it. Radis talks about his personal growth in learning how to manage the care of year-round and seasonal residents on four islands, plus his duties at the Osteopathic Hospital of Maine in Portland, raising a young family and buying his first boat. Here is a caring doctor trying to do his best by the people, providing them with good care (in one instance he was coerced to perform a procedure he was comfortable doing at his kitchen table), and riding a ferry across and around the bay to meet patients' needs.
Its a slice of Maine and island life and depicts the resilience it takes to live on an island. It is a pleasant story about the work of a caring professional matriculating into a small community to bring health care services in a personal yet professional manner.
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| A dock on a Casco Bay island. |
This book is mostly about connection. Radis had to earn the islanders' trust to open his practice (especially because he was not even from Maine originally, often a negative for Maine people with a long family history of living in and being "from" Maine) and work hard to care for them when the weather was terrible or they didn't want to ride the fire boat to go to the hospital in Portland or he wasn't even sure what was wrong.
One very sad aspect of the story was a teenage boy with anorexia. His declining mental and physical health mystified Radis until a terrible secret was revealed and "island justice" took over to provide a safe haven on the island for him again. I won't spoil anything; its heartbreak and healing together. (And island justice is real. It recently happened on Vinalhaven after an attack and death that never saw a conviction come to trial. Its not always best to take the law into your own hands, but in a small island community, being able to trust your neighbors is very important, and the story he includes here illustrates that. Content warning: Its a brutal story to read in this investigative report and the friends and family of the victim and eyewitnesses are very much alive and still wishing for real justice.)
Radis does include a disclaimer than most of the people in the book were composites and names were changed. However two prominent characters were depicted as they were known by the community. Its amazing he earned their trust enough that he felt he could write about them.
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| View of sailboats between Casco Bay islands |
Go By Boat is a fairly short (192 pages in the hardcover edition), easy-to-read book published by DownEast Books, a Maine imprint. I would like to read his other works. Dr. Radis has a website with more information on his books, his nonprofit, and "short stories."
👉For more information on Peak's Island and how to visit other islands in the Casco Bay, see the Casco Bay Lines website. We've taken the "mailboat" run to sail around the bay or to Long Island many times. You may even get to see one of the smaller cruise ships that dock in Casco Bay, like we did last fall.
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| The Emerald Princess was docked right next to the Casco Bay Lines terminal. It towered over everything on Portland's skyline. |
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