Review by _dangerboi - The Beans of Egypt, Maine

_dangerboi 's review for:

The Beans of Egypt, Maine by Carolyn Chute

3.5

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I grew up with a lot of hype and discussion about this book as the rumor in our little corner of the world was that so-and-so-who-used-to-work-with-the-author-said-it-is-inspired-by-[name redacted]-family-on-our-road and that it was an example of gritty Maine writing; so I went in interested in seeing how realistic and relatable it would really be. This was interesting. I first want to note that while there is a village called Egypt in Maine, this book is not based there. The town in this book is set between the real locations of Portland and Oxford which is pretty far from there (the book says it is in Western Maine, which tracks whereas Egypt is not in Western Maine); and contains a nice plethora of towns named after other countries itself. It also contains animal parts from poaching under the power lines and car pieces melting into the ground. So location wise it made sense, the families, made sense. The last names you see peppered over and over again across the state make sense. The dying industries in which people have less and less work in make sense.

The writing is different than some other Maine authors that Chute gets compared to, but I don’t think that necessarily makes sense. This book seems written more from almost the way the different characters would talk and think, with the parts when they are younger more rudimentary and so on, but each still keeping parts that make sense.

All in all, it did not grip my soul, but it did make a whole lot of sense.

Content Warnings