Carolyn Chute

This book is probably not for everyone, but it should be read anyway, especially by wealthy elites and politicians (often the same thing). Ms. Chute is the voice of the people trampled by corporatism and a government not taking care of its people.
Set in the early 2000s in the Oxford hills of western Maine, the story centers primarily around Gordon St. Onge, the Prophet, who is head of a commune/cult that advocates self-reliance and ecological advances. Gordon also has multiple wives, some of them young, that felt cringy. One of the children at the settlement is seven-year-old Jane, whose mother is in jail as an accessory for selling drugs without much hope of getting out soon. Mickey Gammon is a teen kicked out of his home by his step-brother, who's living in the woods, and joins a militia run by Rex. Various other characters, including a crow and the television, take over the story in small vignettes. It's all written in a very effective stream-of-consciousness style, adding to the story's reality.
Apparently, this is the first book in a five-book series. It's very effective writing, as it gives a good picture of how the United States has ended up where it currently stands with rising poverty, poor healthcare, callous media, and politicians who don't give a damn. The next two books are out, and I've already bought them. These aren't heartwarming books with a HEA, but they depict the grim reality of much of America.… (more)

I’d love to tell you what this book was about, but I’m afraid it wasn’t about very much for me. There is a lot of blood, gore, fighting, and mistreatment. There are a lot of sexual encounters (thankfully not too graphically depicted) and a lot of references to sexual encounters that have already taken place and produced innumerable sad and unkempt children. There is squalor and poverty and lack of education, and men who have a too easy affinity for guns.

For me, it is fine to expose this way of life and its underbelly if you have some point to make regarding it besides the obvious one--that it exists. I just could not unearth any other reason for this book than that. I did not see any hope for these characters, but I also did not see any awareness in them, any desire to be better or different, any struggle to overcome or any love of or ambition for their children. There were no qualities that seemed to redeem them. They just seemed content to have this squalid way of life and to want to perpetuate it indefinitely.

I kept waiting for something to happen. Not another roll in the hay or senseless fight or unwanted baby...an event that would bring some kind of meaning to one of these characters. I waited for Earlene to realize that the last thing she really wanted to be was a Bean. But, alas, I waited in vain. I suppose once a Bean, always a Bean.… (more)