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From: maverick@trwatf.UUCP (Mark D. Grover)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: _The Beans of Egypt, Maine_ by Carolyn Chute
Message-ID: <858@trwatf.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 14-Apr-85 19:13:26 EST
Article-I.D.: trwatf.858
Posted: Sun Apr 14 19:13:26 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Apr-85 04:27:55 EST
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Organization: TRW Advanced Technology Facility, Merrifield VA.
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> 	The book has been prominently reviewed in the New York Times
> Book Review and the Washington Post Book World, and the author, Carolyn
> Chute, was extensively interviewed in the Washington Post Style
> section.  From reading what the book is about, I can't understand what
> the big deal is, myself, and judging from readers' letters, they
> couldn't either. Chute makes a big deal about being poor and desperate
> and so forth when it would seem that she was that way largely by choice.

Chute's book is near the top of the paper Best Sellers and was impossible to
get in Washington during its first three weeks.  It's an easy read (an inten-
tionally primitive style).  Having been raised in Maine, I resonated with many
of the images (as well as vocabulary).  It's semi-autobiographical and has been
frequently compared with Faulkner.  I'd rather not.  It is full of grim people
described in ways that are somehow humorous.  The pacing is terrible: it spans
thirty years or so, confusingly and much too quickly.  I found it entertaining
but probably enjoyed it because of my personal background.
-- 
MDG

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