by Carolyn Chute
The essence of abject poverty is pitilessly examined in this novel by a 37-year-old Gorham, Maine housewife. The Bean family is spread all over the countryside in trailers and shacks. They have fox-colored eyes. They are misshapen. Chute's heroine, Earlene, lives with her daddy across the road from some of the Beans, watching them with fascination and disgust. Roberta Bean has uncounted babies and no husband. Her head is shaped like a turnip. Beal Bean spends the night with her sometimes. Is he her nephew? Reuben Bean has a terrible temper and winds up in prison after he beats up the game warden. Earlene herself runs away from home, gets pregnant and begins to produce Beans. Chute's fragmented sketches of life among the poorest in rural Maine are often tragic, but occasionally funny, as when Earlene asks her daddy once too often when they are going to get a Christmas tree. Exasperated, he finds a huge one and gradually chops it into a mass of twigs. Sometimes the Beans show that they have their own view of the world, as when Uncle Loren tells Earlene, "Sweetheart, pigs and hogs is superior to folks. Folks are ratty, messed-up, back-stabbin' sons a whores." This is an engrossing book, with a unique kind of primitive power. (Ticknor & Fields, $7.95)
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