Ten Thousand Saints

Lack of education, unemployment, malnutrition, broken homes, depression, drug & alcohol addiction, early death.... The destiny of slum dwellers everywhere. The characters in this novel fit the pattern and no effort is made to pretty it up for us.

The action moves from a New Hampshire back woods town to the streets of New York City and up and down the New England Coast.

The mid point has the gang on a road trip as a rock band. An addendum 18 years later has Jude, the central character and the book's ostensible narrator back in his old neighbourhood that is remarkably gentrified since his teen years.

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Malice in Maggody

If you didn't know already the novel was set in the south, Arkansas, names like Jim Bob and Larry Joe would give it away. Fishing for catfish and a display of dried beef jerky beside the garage cash register seal the deal. The style is so ah shucks down home it makes Andy Griffith's Mayberry look like an urban metropolis. Since I've driven through Dildo, NFLD, I'll not question the placename Maggody.

The chief of police here is a woman. The turns of phrase contain gems like: "beanpole with acne", "booming threats that would scare the horns off the devil" . The behaviour of town council gives hicks a bad name, policing is strictly keystone cops. Inbreeding and family relationships interconnect all aspects of town life. Having attended Mississauga City Council meeting little would surprise me though I doubt back room bar meetings are broadcast on local cable in Maggody.

The Storyline switches from venue to venue, from sub-plot to sub-plot without warning or even a break in the text to indicate a change. The whole is so cornball as to seem laughable but one fears all too true to small-town life where speeding tickets fund city coffers.

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