The Beans of Egypt, Maine - Softcover

There are families like the Beans all over America. They live on the wrong side of town in mobile homes strung with Christmas lights all year around. The women are often pregnant, the men drunk and just out of jail, and the children too numerous to count. In the 'Beans of Egypt', Maine, we meet the God-fearing Earlene Pomerleau and experience her obsession for the whole swarming Bean tribe. Therecousin Rubie, a boozer and a brawler, tall Aunt Roberta, the earth mother surrounded by countless, clinging babies, and Beal, sensitive, often gentle, but doomed by the violence within him.

Carolyn Chute burst on the literary scene in 1985 with the critically acclaimed and bestselling The Beans of Egypt, Maine. She followed this success with Letourneau's Used Auto Parts and the epic Merry Men. Her nonfiction work has appeared in the New York Times, the Nation, and elsewhere, and she has written about the militia movement in Maine, where she lives with her husband, Michael, and various furry creatures.