There are books about revolutions that are really novels, and not a manifesto. This is not one of them. More propaganda than literature, furnished with schticks rather than narrative this is a clunky sophomore novel. The redeeming feature is the intricacy of character in Rex and Gordon. However, all of the other characters, even the ostensible main characters are not featured enough to be much more than spokespeople for the various political causes Chute uses them for. ( )

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. ( )

Chute's writing combines a Faulknerian vision with lucid and sympathetic story-telling. Her characters stand on their own, believable and whole. Her plotting is amazing: Even as I tried to guess which way the story would go, she managed to surprise me endlessly. ( )

This is Carolyn Chute's most readable and focused book yet. It's full of fascinating and repellent characters-- often the characters exhibit those qualities at the same time--and full of Chute's smouldering mistrust of the "establishment." Full of incisive and prescient social commentary, this book could only have been written by someone who lives "off the grid." There's a tossed-out fact, somewhere near a third of the way through the book, that we in America start building a new prison in this country every week-- I have no idea whether this is true, but it is surely thought-provoking.

This book takes a hard, merciless look at the damage dealt by the establishment, and an even harder look at those-- separatists, ecologists, communalists, and utopians-- who would propose to replace it. It's not happy, but not hopeless either. I can't recommend this book enough. ( )