BATH — Crash Barry, author of “Tough Island: Live,” will present a free 45-minute monologue based on his memoir about life on Matinicus Island at 7 p.m. July 10 at Patten Free Library on Summer Street.

“If you want a romantic look at life on a Maine island, you won’t find it here,” wrote the Progressive Review of the memoir published in August 2011. “Instead, you’ll get a striking account of an often bitter reality no longer a common part of the American story.”

“Two years living in a fish shack didn’t make Crash Barry an expert on Matinicus, but it was a long enough immersion to recognize the distinctive nature of the place,” Commercial Fishing News wrote.

Barry, a columnist and author of other books set in Maine, lives in western Maine. He has worked as a sternman, sailor, bartender, demolitionist, janitor, alpaca herdsman, cow milker and blueberry raker, according to a Patten Free Library release.

For more information, visit crashbarry.com.