Moo: A Novel

When Reena first moves to coastal Maine, she is the archetypal “fish out of water”; she worries that she will never learn to fit in and is insecure about how her identity might change. By the end of the novel, however, she has fully adapted to rural Maine, finding a new maturity and new parts of herself in her adopted home. When Reena first proposes the idea of Maine, it is based on stories she has read and heard from her parents; she has no personal experience with the place, only vague ideas about “rocky shores and lighthouses” and “high blue mountains” (15). When it becomes clear that they are really moving to Maine, she worries “[Will she] know what to do/ and how to be. in/ Maine?” (17) Her New York friends mock her, suggesting that she will become “Maine-y” (18). In her disorienting first days in Maine, it seems that her new environment may be beautiful, but it is also alienating. She is scared of the enormous cows that other young people seem so comfortable around, and the smells of manure and sawdust seem foreign and repulsive. This discomfort reaches a pitch when she is volunteered to help