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[shaw]

Picture the cast of As I Lay Dying. Now make them more ignorant, more easily taken advantage of, and much, much poorer. You are now visiting the Lester family of Tobacco Road.

These are not "poor but noble" people. These are people who can't afford nobility. And the ignorance is something you can taste. Every once in a while something happens that gives them a possibility of making things a little better - something so they stop starving to death, and you want to scream into the book, and either they screw it up, or someone with an education cheats them.

They are completely honest. This does not come off as virtuous. It comes of as rude and tactless. Picture the most awful thoughts you have about other people. Picture vocalizing them casually.

You would think that I could adequately summarize a quick-reading 150 page book; but I can't even begin to describe what it is like. I'm starting to think that I've found an indicator of "Best Novels of All Time" - that property that you can't sit down and convey the experience of reading them to someone else, and when you try, you feel like you are a high-school student writing a book report.

Caldwell puts you in this world of poverty and heat. A less perfect writer would have made you laugh with the events of this story. Another less perfect writer would have made the characters seem heroic. Caldwell does neither. You are just there, and you don't have a convenient genre-paradigm sheilding you from the story.

\I don't want to spoil a word of this novel for you. I feel I've said too much already. I started this book at an airport, knowing nothing about it, and finished it 15 minutes after checking into my hotel. I want you to be able to experience it that way, too. Don't read the back cover.

Okay - one thought. Throughout the book, I kept thinking how much Libertarians would like this book. It is their version of Utopia. The unfettered free market working perfectly. The educated people have the capital they've earned, and they use their smarts to take what they can from the shiftless stupid poor people. Unlike some socialist books on the top 100, these poor people have chances to improve their lives. And since they don't take them, it all must be their fault, right?

Oh, one more thought - This book kept reminding me of an Achewood strip :
http://achewood.com/index.php?date=01052005

[Patguy]