In these observations on the inhabitants of his Maine seacoast village, Mr. Gould addresses important matters. For example, there is the question of why there are two churches in a town of 800 souls, some of whom were atheists. It seems that the split between the two congregations was a matter of both free will and logic. The devotional division was caused by the question of whether Balaam's ass spoke or whether Balaam just said his ass spoke. There is more, wonderfully much more, in this joyful journey into the mind and memory of John Gould: how giving a child a calf to raise provides "top-notch instruction in agronomy, economics, subsistence, and merchandising," as well as milk in the shoes; how lobstermen can communicate without uttering a word; or his comment on women's yearning for equality: "If lovely woman stoops for the folly of equalizing herself with man, God's great mistake, she deserves what she gets." John Gould, as everyone knows, lives in Friendship, Maine. He is the author of twenty books, most recently his first novel, No Other Place .

A Maine writer, he is a national treasure.