The Eastern Shore

August 22, 2016
In this clever novel, Just (American Romance) explores the journalistic ethics of Ned Ayres through his six-decade career as a successful newspaper editor. As editor of his small hometown Indiana newspaper, Ned is challenged early in his career with a blockbuster story—William Grant, a popular, prosperous local businessman who is really a violent ex-convict with a phony new name. Ned must decide whether to publish a human interest story or a juicy, ruinous scandal. His decision results in tragedy, but Ned justifies it as news no matter the consequences. Untroubled by that fateful decision, Ned moves up to editor jobs in Chicago and Washington, D.C., into the Kennedy and L.B.J. years where journalistic ethics get more blurred. He changes jobs and lovers, consumed by the newspaper business. As years pass, Ned loves his work, never marries, and has no close friends. And he never again faces the dire consequences of that ex-con’s exposure story so many years before. When Ned finally retires in 2005, he realizes his decrepit old Maryland manor house is just like the newspaper business—old, decayed, poorly maintained, and corrupted by rot. The William Grant sequence is the high point of the novel but occurs early on, and unfortunately the subsequent portions fail to match its power.

At the center of this even-tempered novel is a newspaperman far more wedded to his professional than to his personal life.Ned Ayres is raised in Herman, Indiana, and grows up feeling constricted by the limitations of small-town life--he does not want "to live and die in Herman." Much to the disgust of his father, a circuit court judge, Ned refuses to go to college and instead joins the local paper. This begins a process of widening opportunities as he works his way up in the profession, editing newsworthy stories and moving from Herman to Indianapolis to Chicago and finally to Washington, D.C. Along the way he has a failed love affair with Elaine Ardmore, who doesn't share his love of--or obsession with--the news. We also learn of his first big news break, when he was city editor at the Herman newspaper. The article concerned a scandal involving a man who had viciously beaten a gas station attendant, been sentenced to prison, and disappeared after parole. He becomes a haberdasher and prominent citizen in Herman before reporter Gus Harding writes a story revealing his sordid past, and Ned argues for printing it--with tragic consequences for the businessman. Just's (American Romantic, 2014, etc.) technique is to highlight several major events of Ned's life, both personal and professional, and to chronicle his interactions with quirky publishers and prominent politicians. By the end, Ned is 80, living a lonely existence in his Eastern Shore manor house and writing his memoirs--strange in a way because his life as an editor has been inherently uneventful and undramatic. We even learn that he's never been abroad (much less ever married) because the newspaper business has so dominated his life. Just's narrative stays largely above the rough-and-tumble of newspaper practices, which leads to a curious detachment from their toughness and grit. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 15, 2016

Ned Ayers, the protagonist of this reflective and intelligent new novel by Just (American Romantic), has devoted his life to the newspaper business with integrity and passion. From humble beginnings in Indiana, Ayers rises to become an accomplished editor and nationally recognized journalist. Good company for readers, Ayers is a compelling character--decent, literate, and introspective--and in some ways, he's very lucky. He's worked his entire life at a job he loves. Yet his all-consuming passion for the news has hurt him deeply, especially with regard to forsaken personal relationships, which he comes to grieve deeply. In addition, an expose he approved early in his career resulted in tragedy and continues to haunt him. This leads Ayers to grapple with difficult truths about privacy, human complexity, and the nature of the media. Himself a respected journalist, Just skillfully examines a number of existential questions, including how we come to understand the choices we make and how well we actually know ourselves. VERDICT A pensive, quietly affecting novel. Recommended for literary fiction fans.--Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT

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