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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
Bittersweet and funny. Living off the land comes with its own physical and social accountability, and I liked the way this loving family experienced emotional growth that helped them stick together, even when physically apart. The voices of the primary characters are engaging and feel authentic. Perley’s voice, with his Elfquest-inspired coping mechanisms and his openhearted sincerity, is hugely enjoyable. The defensive bigotry encountered by the main and some secondary characters will feel familiar to some readers, and those attitudes aren’t specific to small towns. The protagonists’ tenacious resistance is admirable and relatable.
Readers Advisory: AS a Librarian, I’d recommend this book to fans of Educated, the Foxfire nonfiction series (the family’s experiences made me think of Foxfire frequently as I read!), Sarah Shulman, general literary fiction; and the podcasts This American Life and The Moth.
Readers Advisory: AS a Librarian, I’d recommend this book to fans of Educated, the Foxfire nonfiction series (the family’s experiences made me think of Foxfire frequently as I read!), Sarah Shulman, general literary fiction; and the podcasts This American Life and The Moth.
I struggle with how to describe this book. Parts of it still stick with me. The notion that poor, rural families have a different definition of happiness than urban monied people really came through in the writing. But none of the characters were likable and the ending wasn’t overly satisfying.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
How did Farrar, Straus and Giroux miss the obvious title for this book--Snakes in a Shack!--and settle for the anodyne, Stay and Fight?
I can't blame Madeline Ffitch for this oversight, because she does her job brilliantly: unveiling one of America's most misunderstood cultures (Appalachian hillbillies), creating characters that readers will root for, and illustrating the lush, tangled landscape of southeastern Ohio.
Helen, a transplant from Washington State, moves to a 20-acre plot for love (of a man), she stays there, though, for a love of the land, trying her best to live off the land (road kill, wild plants, acorns) and record her discoveries in a Best Practices Handbook. Joined by Karen and Lily, a lesbian couple raising their son, Perley, outside societal bounds, Helen builds a shack and a lifestyle that sure looks to the reader like dire poverty but proves to be something far more.
Ffitch's book is no Hillbilly Elegy. The poverty of its characters is defiant, intentional, embraced with a fondness for past ways and little hope for the future. America flies over the compound in helicopters and offers temporary riches in return for the despoliation of Appalachia. The heroines are one with the land--to the point that they sleep and live entwined with black snakes.
It is a jarring collision with the outside world that will push these women toward confrontation with the law and the natural gas company--that will push them to expel (in Samuel Jackson's immortal lines) "these MFing snakes from this MFing [shack]." And Perley, the son of the hills and Friend of Snakes, the boy raised on fantasies of elves and woods, will pursue a quest that will "redeem the land" and his modern family as well.
Full disclosure: I grew up in southeastern Ohio on a hill called Tick Ridge (Helen's property vividly reminded me of my neighbor's plot growing up, complete with the small, metal trailer). When I was seven, I explored the woods just as Perley did--I even had my own, hidden cave. And while I live now in Tennessee, I'm still haunted by a love of Appalachia. It's the reason why I selected this book. And it's the reason I found it so satisfying to read.
Full disclosure: I read the book thanks to Net Galley, but these opinions are all my own.
Go and buy Stay and Fight.
I can't blame Madeline Ffitch for this oversight, because she does her job brilliantly: unveiling one of America's most misunderstood cultures (Appalachian hillbillies), creating characters that readers will root for, and illustrating the lush, tangled landscape of southeastern Ohio.
Helen, a transplant from Washington State, moves to a 20-acre plot for love (of a man), she stays there, though, for a love of the land, trying her best to live off the land (road kill, wild plants, acorns) and record her discoveries in a Best Practices Handbook. Joined by Karen and Lily, a lesbian couple raising their son, Perley, outside societal bounds, Helen builds a shack and a lifestyle that sure looks to the reader like dire poverty but proves to be something far more.
Ffitch's book is no Hillbilly Elegy. The poverty of its characters is defiant, intentional, embraced with a fondness for past ways and little hope for the future. America flies over the compound in helicopters and offers temporary riches in return for the despoliation of Appalachia. The heroines are one with the land--to the point that they sleep and live entwined with black snakes.
It is a jarring collision with the outside world that will push these women toward confrontation with the law and the natural gas company--that will push them to expel (in Samuel Jackson's immortal lines) "these MFing snakes from this MFing [shack]." And Perley, the son of the hills and Friend of Snakes, the boy raised on fantasies of elves and woods, will pursue a quest that will "redeem the land" and his modern family as well.
Full disclosure: I grew up in southeastern Ohio on a hill called Tick Ridge (Helen's property vividly reminded me of my neighbor's plot growing up, complete with the small, metal trailer). When I was seven, I explored the woods just as Perley did--I even had my own, hidden cave. And while I live now in Tennessee, I'm still haunted by a love of Appalachia. It's the reason why I selected this book. And it's the reason I found it so satisfying to read.
Full disclosure: I read the book thanks to Net Galley, but these opinions are all my own.
Go and buy Stay and Fight.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was one of those books where I couldn't stop reading but also spent the whole time like "... Am I enjoying this, at all? Do I even like this book a little bit?" My feelings for the main characters ranged from neutral to active dislike (and books where I don't like the main characters are *not* my jam). I pretty much hated the fact that we got first person POV of a seven year old that tried to both be written stream of conscious style and yet also have his language and sentence structure be weirdly elevated. I understand why the author did it for the narrative structure of the story, but oof, I really didn't like it at all. It also felt like so much of the conundrums that the characters found themselves in were of their own making, rather than a result of generational poverty. I hesitate to say that last point because I want to be mindful of the fact that I'm reading a story about a region and a life that is very different from my own. But I really couldn't get past the moment where one woman said to her partner "I'm breastfeeding, can we please buy some groceries" and her partner said "doesn't matter, we still need to pretend we don't have any money at all and eat acorns." Anyway, I'm looking forward to the book club discussion about this because I feel like this book is perfectly constructed to have a lot of discussion.
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed a lot of elements in this book, but was left feeling a bit incomplete. The character development was fantastic, the flow of the chapters was well crafted, and the story was entertaining, but it left us with so many loose ends that I set it down feeling unfulfilled and a little frustrated.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced