THE BEANS OF EGYPT, MAINE

This first novel by Maine native Carolyn Chute gets up close and personal with real poverty and the effects of lack of education in rural areas of the author's home state. Having entered this life, Chute's prose vibrates with the authority born of experience. Julia Delfino adequately captures the dullness of a life whose edges have been sanded away by the coarse grit of despair. But she should never have read the book in her dreadful version of a Maine accent. Delfino's portrayal of the sounds of Maine can only be described as Deep South with the "r's" all messed up. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 01]