First published 2009
In rusted-out Michigan towns, mechanics and factory workers face each new day without steady paychecks or clear futures. A woman watches her neighbor cook methamphetamine while her own washing machine breaks down again. A hunter cleans his rifle and wonders if the deer will return this season. These characters possess the skills their grandparents needed: they can repair engines, preserve meat, and build shelter from scraps. But the factories have closed, the wildlife has disappeared, and the old ways of making a living no longer work. Campbell drops readers into kitchens where families argue over unpaid bills, into workshops where men tinker with broken machines they cannot afford to replace. Her characters love fiercely and hate without reservation. They salvage what they can from the wreckage of industrial America, but they cannot salvage their own prosperity. The stories reveal how people endure when their entire way of life becomes obsolete.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
Setting: Michigan
Period: 21st-century
170 pages · Paperback · Wayne State University Press
Content warnings: addiction