Merry Men - Hardcover

Chute, Carolyn

3.95

213 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151592705 ISBN 13: 9780151592708

Publisher: Harcourt, 1994

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The Barringtons' clan wins a reputation for eccentricity with the behavior of Unk Walty, who constructs life-like and life-size sculptures of Egypt, Maine, residents. By the author of The Beans of Egypt, Maine. 40,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. Tour.

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About the Author:

Carolyn Chute is a contributor for the following Houghton Mifflin Company Title: Merry Men

From Publishers Weekly:

Chute's writing is wayward, her style turbulent, lyrical, fragmented. Yet, through the unleashed whirlwind scenes of her third novel (unlike the terse control of The Beans of Egypt, Maine ) throbs the raw genius of her voice. Continuing her saga of Egypt's country folk, Chute delineates the lives of three men--Lloyd, Forest and Carroll. College-grad, poet and working man, Lloyd broods on death and quotes ominous verses to his discomfited kin. He reacts stoically when a brain tumor reduces his wife, Sherry, to idiocy. Lloyd is lacerated by his desire for Gwen, a genteel, affluent widow, while she is spellbound by Lloyd's rude, dour charisma when he delivers her firewood. Lloyd's half-brother Forest (clandestinely fathered by the same ladies' man) advances from backhoe digger to Road Commissioner, minus one foot and some toes from the other, and agonizes over his son's career as a California artist and druggie. Carroll, a boozing, depressive ex-con, is courted and healed by towhead waitress Anneka, mouthy and endearing in her ardent campaigns against social injustice. Throughout, Egypt's "wise men" pass judgment from their creaky chairs in Moody's Variety & Lunch. A dark, angry, swollen book, Merry Men gathers preacherly momentum as it charges toward a denouement of woes. Characters rail helplessly against crushing forces: "Big Biz" layoffs, union busters, rapists of the land, hunters who gleefully club wildcats and carelessly shoot housewives in their backyards and all those who work in white shirts with clean hands. As enthralling as this novel is in places, it would have benefited from more thoughtful editing. The undefined closure seems to promise a sequel. Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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