South Portland author’s novel is Reese’s Book Club pick
Beck Dorey-Stein with her new novel “Spectacular Things” at Bug Light in South Portland. The book is the July pick for Reese Witherspoon’s book club. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)
Beck Dorey-Stein used to find getting stuck on the Casco Bay Bridge super frustrating.
But these days, if the South Portland author finds herself waiting in traffic as the giant spans open for an oil tanker, the delay makes her smile. It reminds her of all the good luck she’s had this month, including her novel “Spectacular Things” being chosen as the July title for Reese Witherspoon’s book club, and all the attention and publicity that goes with that.
The book’s opening scene is about a woman in labor stuck on the bridge — which connects Portland to South Portland — and the first two lines read: “The bridge is up. Of course it is.”
“Now I see it as a good luck charm. I got stuck on the bridge last week and I thought, ‘This is a reminder of how lucky I am,’” said Dorey-Stein, 39.
“Spectacular Things” went on sale July 1 and on the same day, Witherspoon was on Instagram announcing it was her book club’s official July pick. Dorey-Stein, who has written one previous novel and a memoir, said her book is being “shopped around” to film and TV producers and that the book club announcement has contributed to steady growth in sales.
The book’s story is set in Maine, in a fictional town called Victory, but many Greater Portland landmarks are mentioned by name, including the bridge, Becky’s Diner and Portland Head Light. The story focuses on two sisters who grow up in Maine, including one who goes on to be a serious soccer player.
Dorey-Stein said the novel is about “grief and joy, failure and success.” She wanted to focus on two sisters because of the idea that sisters, including her own, can drive each other “bananas” but also drive their siblings to be the best version of themselves. She wanted to focus a story on women’s soccer because she’s a huge fan of the U.S. Women’s National Team and researching the novel helped her spend more time in that world.
She set the story in Maine not simply because she lives here and knows all the landmarks, and not because she felt like she got stuck on the Casco Bay Bridge more often than most people. It’s where she found her voice as a writer and fell in love.
A little more than five years ago, she was living in Philadelphia and not finding much inspiration as a novelist. She started to think of moving to Maine, where she had vacationed with her family for many years as a child and where her parents had talked about retiring to.
“I came up to visit a friend and she took me to Scratch (Baking Co.) and to Willard Beach and I thought ‘I just want to come here and write books and get a dog and live by the beach,” said Dorey-Stein. “Within three months of moving here, I met a guy on Willard Beach, fell in love, and now we have a 3-year-old. So Maine is magical.”
Dorey-Stein’s first novel, “Rock the Boat,” came out in 2021 and was about a group of people in their 30s who return home to their sleepy hometown on the New Jersey shore. Her first book, non-fiction, was a memoir about her years working as White House stenographer from 2012 to 2017, called “From the Corner of the Oval.” She worked mostly during the administration of President Barack Obama, traveling with him, recording press conferences and interviews, and then later transcribing them for the official archives. The book came out in 2019 and was a New York Times best seller.
She had answered an ad on Craigslist for that job, and she already had the right security clearance because she had worked as a writing tutor at the private school where Obama’s daughters were students. After leaving the White House she lived in Philadelphia, where she had grown up, for about three years before deciding to move to Maine.
She was witness to some important moments and some potentially embarrassing ones. There was the time she was recording an interview between Obama and journalist April Ryan on Air Force One and suddenly felt like she was about to be violently ill.
“I was sitting between the President and April and all of a sudden I felt like was about to projectile vomit everywhere,” said Dorey-Stein. “Luckily, the plane landed and I was able to run to a bathroom.”
Dorey-Stein feels like living in Maine these five years were crucial to writing the book, because of how inspired she feels to live here.
“I think so much of writing doesn’t actually involve writing, it involves thinking about it and getting inspired. I think that’s why so many writers live here,” she said.
