A review by bookcrazyblogger
The Coyotes of Carthage by Steven Wright

4.0

Dre Ross is a black man who grew up in DC, living in and out of shelters, eventually catching four felonies. Now 35, he has become a political consultant, accepting money from different corporations and lobbyists to get their candidates or whatever it is that they’re selling, elected. After he screws up his latest consultation, he’s sent to rural Carthage County, in South Carolina, to convince the small-town to accept selling a thousand acres of public land to a gold-mining company. Dre finds himself partnered with his mentor and part-owner’s grandson Brenden, a delightfully naive albeit wealthy, white kid in his early 20’s, whose latest schtick is to fully embrace his Irish heritage. Dre and Brenden end up linking up with a blue-color couple, Tyler and Charlene Lee, to act as their initiatives public face. I found this to be a really fascinating book dealing with the dirty side of politics and confronting race, class issues. It’s a book about completely in likable characters, about politics that wildly differ from mine (money over decency) and it was so accurate about where American government has landed, that it makes me ashamed to be an American. I recommend reading this book because despite it being fiction, it portrays very real experiences about how politics in our country are run and at what cost to the people.