Martin Rae Rae من عند Laffer SA 5267، أستراليا
This is a difficult book to summarize, so I'm not even going to attempt to. Simply put, it is a sad, suspenseful and provocative story about small town politics and cultures. It is also about anti-government ideas, the banality of small town communities, corporate disregard for humane approaches to business practices and the violation of women. A very broad spectrum of topics that intersect with the story of two small-town girls, their families and their equally traumatic yet different endings. The story was told in numerous first person accounts, characters that recalled or told the story from their personal memories or point of view. Again, it was a difficult narrative. Full of philosophical themes and literary diatribes, a lot of which I had to reread a few times to even remotely comprehend. I'm usually not so out of the loop of social conscience that a discussion of it's ills and failings leave me utterly confused, yet these written monologues were beyond my educated psyche. Very intelligent writing, thinking and content which is of no fault to the writer that I found too deep to form many opinions of. I did continue reading to the final page and can't say it was a waste of time. Just a very exhausting read. Also, though I am certainly not a prude, there was an over abundance of expletives throughout the book. This is small beans, but it did bother me to continuously have them there. Writers liberties, though. I'm guessing she had her reasons. Maybe I'm a bit dense and others will like this more than I did. I'd love to hear your comments or thoughts if you have read it.