Fourth of July Creek: A Novel

by Smith Henderson

Hardcover, 2014

Status

Available

Publication

Ecco (2014), Edition: 1St Edition, 480 pages

Description

"After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral eleven-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed. In this shattering and iconic American novel, Smith Henderson explores the complexities of freedom, community, grace, suspicion, and anarchy, brilliantly depicting our nation's disquieting and violent contradictions" --… (more)

Media reviews

Long before Smith Henderson, the author of this not-to-be-missed first novel, makes it explicit, it’s clear that to work for the Department of Family Services in a job like Pete’s is to grapple with every form of human frailty and to try to bring salvation rather than pass judgment. The
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book’s deeply persuasive message is “that all of life can be understood as casework.” And Pete serves as something of a secular priest.
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User reviews

LibraryThing member TimBazzett
FOURTH OF JULY CREEK, by Smith Henderson.

Who is this guy, Smith Henderson, and where did he come from? Because this book is just so damn good! He's like Athena, who was born fully grown and armed, springing from the forehead of Zeus. Only this guy, this AUTHOR, has sprung fully armed with all the
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best tools of the writing trade from, from ... Hell, I don't know where from, but did I say how GOOD this book is?

I probably don't really need to summarize the plot, because the book's already been reviewed a few hundred times by now. But Pete Snow is a protagonist who will not be easily forgotten. A caseworker for the Department of Family Services in western Montana in the early Reagan years, Snow is overworked but fiercely dedicated, trying with everything he has to make a difference in the lives of some of the poorest and most screwed up people you have ever met. As a character, Snow is completely, fully realized. Henderson is inside the guy's head to an extent that, once you've started reading, it's almost impossible to get Snow out of YOUR head. While Pete tries to save the least of our brethren, his own family has disintegrated. His wife and thirteen year-old daughter (and oh, the daughter, another sad story, and another character Henderson OWNS, he is so inside her head too) have left. Pete is living in a cabin in the mountains, off the grid. Hey, I don't want to summarize this complex, moving, at times frighteningly horrific story. That's already been done. Then there is Jeremiah Pearl and his eleven year-old son, Benjamin. Pearl is a survivalist, a religious crazy, a guy who hates the government and civilization in general. When they enter Pete's purview in tiny Tenmile, Montana, the story takes off, and you can't help but hang on for your life in a tale that takes you from Montana to Texas to Indiana to Washington and Oregon and a lot of strange places in between. Henderson knows these places. He knows the Yaak wilderness - the forests and mountains and valley - as well as the red light district of Seattle and the main drag at UT-Austin. And he makes you feel that you know these places too.

What makes this book such a ride? Think Waco, think Ruby Ridge, think the Unabomber, and maybe even a little bit of Jonestown with its sacramental Kool-Aid. Put all this kind of stuff deep in the trackless "rain forest" and "jungle" of the Yaak. Send in cops and the ATF and FBI on a concentrated all-out manhunt. And put Pete Snow, this imperfect, battered but dedicated "priest" of the secular religion of Social Work, right smack in the middle of it, trying to save a young boy. (In fact there are other cases he's covering that are equally interesting and morbidly horrific, i.e. Cecil and Katie, and their abusive druggie mom.) And then there's the parallel plot of Pete's daughter Rachel (aka 'Rose'), who takes you deep into the terrifying, dark and ineffably sad world of teenage runaways.

Sorry, I can't get all this stuff into a review. There's just too much going on, but it all comes together masterfully, and there is a kind of redemption to be found, finally, if you manage to ride it out to the end.

Influences? Comparisons? I first thought of a recent novel by another Montanan, Kim Zupan's THE PLOUGHMEN - another beautiful book about an equally grim subject. And the descriptions of the bars and clubs of Missoula made me think of the late James Crumley, whose PI noirs nailed those places so well. And the Yaak Valley, with its dope farmers and other weirdoes brought to mind the West Virginia stories of Pinckney Benedict. And poor, crazy, raging teenage Cecil and his doper mother brought back Earl Thompson's classic novel of Depression-era Kansas, A GARDEN OF SAND. In the end, however, Smith Henderson has created his own unique world here, and it couldn't be any more real - or terrifying - than it is. Final word: FOURTH OF JULY CREEK is, hands down, simply one of the best books I have read in the past ten years. My highest recommendation.
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LibraryThing member TommyB
Train Wreck

Anyone who thinks about reading this book needs to understand that everyone in the book is a complete train wreck. The social worker who is the main focus, his estranged wife, daughter, girlfriend, brother and boyhood best friend. And then there's the people he is trying to help --
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almost always unsuccessfully. None of these people is just mildly flawed -- they are all walking disasters. The one hint in the last few pages of something going right is erased by the last page in the book. Don't expect to be uplifted, satisfied or anything other than regretful that you had to read through such horror stories of lives.
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LibraryThing member em0451
First, a few warnings about this book.

If you are looking for a cheerful, uplifting story of redemption, this is not your book.

If you re looking for something to give you a glimmer of hope in this broken world, this is not your book.

If you are offended by bad language, this is not your book.

If you
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have difficulty reading stories about child abuse, this is not your book.

If you have made it through all of this list without shying away, then maybe this could be a book for you.

It's dark and edgy and grim and gritty. It's not a pretty story, and the writing spares no details when it comes to some of the horrors and tragedies experienced by these characters.

Yet, despite all the disclaimers above, I did find this to be an intriguing story. I've never been one to shy away from dark stories, and I think that is because they are usually so different from my own life experiences. I enjoy being able to get a glimpse of what life is like for people who are not like me. And these characters from rural Montana are definitely not like me!

Pete Snow, the main character in Fourth of July Creek, is a social worker trying to help kids in his rural Montana town of Tenmile. But just like the kids he is trying to help, Pete has plenty of problems of his own. When Pete tries to help a boy living in the woods, he comes face to face with the boy's father, Jeremiah Pearl, a conspiracy theorist who is anxiously and eagerly awaiting the End Times. As Pete's own family falls apart, he also begins to form a cautious and unlikely friendship with the Pearls, and he gets caught in the middle when the FBI come to town on the hunt for Pearl.

The idea that "abuse leads to more abuse" was illustrated clearly in this grim tale. I just felt so incredibly sad for all of these characters. They all appear to be stuck in the rut of following what their parents and grandparents have done before them, of living a life filled with abuse, pain, alcohol, drugs, sex, and regret. No one was happy. At all. I know this story is fiction and not based on real people, but I know there are many people in the world who live this way. It is terribly sad to think that people could spend their whole lives living like theses characters, without joy and without hope. I also found it interesting that the social workers in this story seemed to have the same problems and issues as the clients that they are trying to help. Pete said something to this effect in the story, "we take kids away from people like us." Yet, I still found myself rooting for Pete and wanting him to succeed, despite his flaws. He was far from perfect, but still he was trying to do good. I appreciated the real humanity of his character.

So while this story didn't make me feel good in any way, it was still captivating. It's hard to say I enjoyed reading it because of some of the tough content, but I still would say I liked the book quite a bit. I especially liked the parts when Pete interacted with Jeremiah Pearl and his son Benjamin, and when we were given glimpses into what their life was like before Pete met them. I also liked the "interviews" (I put that in quotes because I'm not convinced that they were really interviews...kind of wish there was a little more closure there) with Rachel, Pete's daughter. Although having two daughters of my own, those interviews were also terrifying for me to read!

I would recommend this book with a lot of caution, because it is definitely not for everyone. But if you are up for this gritty story full of flawed, troubled characters, it is well written and engaging and one that I won't forget for a while.
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LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce
This book is on several best book of 2014 lists and well deserving of the honor. It's about a male social worker in Montana (one of his first remarks is, "I know, most of us are women"), parenting in all forms, bad decisions from small to life altering, religious and political nuttery, police
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overreach, government under reach and the fragility of humankind. I was sad to finish the tale because I was so caught up in the characters and kept hoping good would come to them.
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LibraryThing member konastories
Joy's review: Yes, everyone in this book is a train wreck. The social worker, the kids he's trying to help, his own daughter, the crazy guy living on the mountain. It also a wonderfully written book. All the scenes are vivid; all the characters seemed very realistic; all the dialogue I could hear
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in my head. For me, one of the primary reasons to read fiction is to get a glimpse of other lives quite different from my own and hopefully to become more empathetic and kind as a result. This book did this very well.
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LibraryThing member addunn3
A social worker in rural Montana attempts to do his work while his own family pieces are flying apart. Interesting, good writing, but at times a little over the top. Maybe I don't get out enough, but the main character seems to be out of control and making poor personal decisions that are counter
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to his work requirements. But "it is Montana", seems to be the explanation.
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LibraryThing member hubblegal
I kept reading this book in the hopes of finding something of value in it that would justify the raving reviews it's received. Never did find it. I didn't like any of the characters or cared about any of them except little Ben Pearl, who was caught in all of his father's paranoia. I don't see where
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the writing was brilliant. I thought it was very disjointed and confusing. Very disappointed in this book and will stay away from anything else written by this author. The book literally gave me a headache and made me feel sick. I very seldom give any book two stars but this hardly deserves that. I'll give it those two stars only because about a third of the way in, I was curious about what would happen, especially to the Pearls, but that curiosity died out another third of the way in.
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LibraryThing member Shiraloo
This book wasn't my cup of tea. I was interested by the primary story line, but then the author veered into the destruction of Pete and I couldn't figure out where it was going, and I got turned off. DNF @ 16%.
LibraryThing member rglossne
This is an extraordinary first novel. Pete Snow, a 31 year old social worker, seems to be failing at his personal
and professional lives, overmatched by the evils of the world, drinking way too much. Three stories are interwoven: the failure of Pete's marriage and disappearance of his daughter; the
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tragedy of a family infected by drugs; and the story of Jeremiah and Benjamin Pearl. Can Pete save any of them? Himself?
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LibraryThing member baggman
I wanted to read this book as soon as I read a review on my library website. I found it enticing, the kind of book that would appeal to me. It did not disappoint.

I’ve never been to Montana. The closest I’ve ever gotten was four days in Scottsdale Arizona, studying the city’s development
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regulations. Fourth of July Creek, which takes place during the early 1980’s, does not tell a story that will make you want to visit Montana, unless you are one of those unique individuals that enjoys killing their own food and cooking on a wood stove. Or drinking boiler makers in a bar where most people are wearing John Deer caps and muddy work boots and smell of fresh timber, or fresh manure. Where the Jukebox only has Hank Williams and Willie Nelson songs. Nothing wrong with that. It’s just not for everyone.

This is a story of what can, and often does happen, when personal freedom, at least what may be perceived as personal freedom, collides with government. Add a dose of Old Time Religion, the complexities of social interaction, and the problems of rebellious youth and you have the foundation for Fourth of July Creek.

Henderson’s writing style is what I would describe as unique. Some may find it somewhat difficult to follow, requiring paragraphs to be reread. I reread quite a few paragraphs myself, to better understand their intent. I also reread many a paragraph just for the enjoyment. If the following excerpts give you pause, as they did for me, you’ll want to read this book.

She is proof that there is nothing that cannot happen to someone. That the world doesn’t need permission, that there is no novel evil it won’t embrace.

But there was an aptness to his late conversion, as though he always knew that at the end of his life he’d have to do something to avoid going to hell.

Gnaw Bone was lousy with Jehovah’s Witnesses coming by every week, selling a map to hell. A man comes to your house to give you something—a service, a good, a belief—you best set him back on his way.

After the fact, it was pretty obvious she was suffering massive withdrawal, that her body was precisely calibrated to the careful and steady administration of vodka, amphetamines, and barbiturates to maintain her.

What was it like on the way to Texas? It was Wyoming, which means to drive forever through ugly scrubscape the color of dirty pennies. It was just wyoming along. They were wyoming forever. You could wyom all day and not make any progress. To wyom was to go from nowhere to nowhere. Through nowhere. To see nothing. To do nothing but sit. You turn on the radio and wyom through the dial slowly, carefully in search of a sliver of civilization only to find a man talking about the price of stock animals and feed. You listen to a dour preacher wyoming about your bored and dying and wyoming soul.
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LibraryThing member aurorapaigem
I'm always skeptical of books that I I read about on must-read lists. I'm glad I read this one though! I liked that the main character was in a professional position, but was just as messed-up as the people he was responsible for taking care of. Some of the content and language is graphic, but it
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really only serves to paint a picture of the lives these people lead. This book would probably be considered more of a male read, but that doesn't mean that females won't enjoy it. It almost seems like modern fiction, but is set in the 80's. I'm honestly not sure who I would recommend this book to, but there are themes of depression, religion, conspiracy, violence, complicated man-woman relationships, complicated parent-child relationships, abuse, and living poor. -Audio
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LibraryThing member Perednia
The American West has long been a haven for people who want to be left alone and those who despair of society. But loners and misfits aren't always alone. Sometimes they have families and those families have children -- children who may be loved or who may be barely endured, but either way, they
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can be children who are not cared for.

Pete Stone is a social worker assigned to a vast territory in the northwest corner of Montana, of sparsely settled pockets not of civilization, but of people. He's like a lot of those people. His marriage is broken, his teenage daughter is sullen and doesn't get much attention from a father with a demanding job, and he drinks. A lot. His successes trying to help children and listen to the adults purportedly caring for them are few but he still plugs away at it.

Between other hard-luck cases, Pete is called when a wild child appears at a school one day. Even in the pre-computerized days of the late '70s and early '80s, the dawn of the Reagan era, it's unusual for a boy in such a state to have no records. The boy, Benjamin, doesn't consider himself neglected. He and his pa live in the woods off the land. Headed up toward camp, Benjamin's father warns Pete away, obviously willing to shoot him.

That father is Jeremiah Pearl, who knows the end times are coming. His dearly loved wife saw the signs coming and had the whole troop of Pearls, including all the babies, leave Indiana and head for the woods where they might have a chance to survive.

Pete leaves foodstuffs and clothes in a niche in the woods. Sometimes things get taken. The distrustful Pearl gradually doesn't quite trust Pete, but accepts his help and then him. In between spells when they spend some time traipsing through the land, Pete's wife leaves Montana for Texas, where there is a chance of a man taking care of her and their daughter, and their daughter realizes she's got nowhere to go. So she leaves. And it's about as blandly dire as one would think.

The sections where Pete tries to navigate the system through several states, trying to find a young runaway daughter, shows how easily children fall through the cracks of a social system set up to protect them, and shows the heartbreak of parents who love their children but don't know how to take care of them. So do the sections where that daughter, Rachel, becomes a child of the streets.

Whether it's parents who can't handle being parents, children forced to grow up and fend for themselves, people who believe what they are told or people who don't believe the evidence in front of their faces, Henderson's debut novel is filled with innocents who wonder about what has happened to them or who cannot handle what they see going on. Most of the people in the novel feel helpless about what they see, whether it's a small-town judge heartbroken when Reagan wins, a female social worker who was an abused child or a federal agent who regrets the choices he has made.

About the only people who don't feel helpless are Pearl and his son. Pearl is a combination of just about every paranoid, black helicopter-fearing loner who have inhabited the crannies of Northwest empty places for decades. He's also far more than that, and the dull despair that sometimes enshrouds Henderson's people is a great contrast to this character who searched so hungrily for something to believe in, and chose wrongly.

Henderson's novel earns its humanizing, heartfelt climax and coda both because the scope of the characters' journeys are so well-drawn and because the little details are so right. This is a highly political and social novel that is tightly anchored to its characters and setting. To have carried this off with no preaching or screeching is a remarkable achievement, and an uplifting reading experience.
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LibraryThing member revliz
One of the best books I've read this year. Not fun. But GOOD!
LibraryThing member ericae
Really excellent. A marvelous and muscle-ey debut resulting in a sort of iron poetry. Read it for the language; read it for the very compelling story; read it because it's the whole enchilada: visceral and intense and like, important. It reminded me--for its grit--a little of The Orphan Master's
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Son.
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LibraryThing member sleahey
Pete is a social worker for Montana Protective Services, and he encounters cruelty and insanity and abuse every day, even while his own family has fallen apart. His relationships with his clients are caring and empathetic, and he becomes involved with a father and small son who are living in the
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wilds anticipating the end of the world. Meanwhile, Pete and his wife have split up and his teenage daughter is alienated from him, compounded by her move to Texas with her out-of-control mother. The daughter becomes a runaway, causing Pete untold worry. Even though most of the characters in this novel are deeply flawed, some downright evil, it seems that the author genuinely likes the people in this book, starting first of all with Pete. Henderson provides a complex world for us to inhabit, and then be grateful that we don't actually live there.
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LibraryThing member arielfl
At first I thought this was just another one oft hose critically acclaimed books that i just could not understand the appeal to and then the book caught me in it's web and I could not put it down. The novel has three main threads. The main story is Pete Stone is a social worker in the 70's for the
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state of Montana. There is no distance he won't go for his clients but the irony is while he is out saving other people's kids his own child is a mess. As he tells his ex wife, we are the people that I take children away from.The sad state of Pete's family life is due to his ex cheating on him and taking off with their daughter. The other two threads of the story relate to Pete's clients. Cecile has been asked to leave the home by his mother if she can be called that and Benjamin Pearl shows up in town one day exhibiting the signs of malnutrition. The mystery of the Pearl family was the most compelling part of the book for me. Pete knows that there are other members of the family besides Benjamin and his father but where they are is a mystery until the end.

Normally I don't like illiterate, poor people who abuse their kids type of stories. So depressing and sad. This book is dark but the story was just so compelling.
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LibraryThing member bg853
As many have stated this is a dark book with numerous unlikeable characters who make some really bad decisions. This seems to be the year of dark stories with books such as [The Enchanted] and [An Untamed State]. While for me the tone of the two aforementioned books rang true and I found them both
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excellent; I did not find [Fourth of July Creek] as compelling.

Part of my problem with the book is personal. I have an aversion to stupidity and while I can happily read about somene with no redeeming characteristics (I loved Hannibal Lechter), I cringe at watching characters making one stupid move after another.

My other problem was the language. There are times that the language just sings. It is beautiful and lyrical. However, it did not seem real that a high school drop out could on occassion wax poetically like somone with a MFA in English.

Given that the book does a good job of involving you and making you care about the characters.
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LibraryThing member writestuff
Pete Snow is a social worker in the Montana wilderness of Tenmile, a small town in the middle of nowhere outside of Missoula. He is divorced, fighting with his ex-wife and his surly teenage daughter, and trying to steer clear of his troubled brother who has recently beat up a parole officer and
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taken off to parts unknown. When a bedraggled boy is picked up in town, Pete decides to hike up into the wilderness to return the boy to his family. He has no idea that the boy’s father, a radical man named Benjamin Pearl, might just not want to be found.

Fourth of July Creek is about the unraveling of family and community as Benjamin Pearl becomes more paranoid and unpredictable and Pete’s personal life slides out of control with the disappearance of his daughter and an FBI investigation.

Smith Henderson’s first novel (he has published numerous short works and won the 2011 Pushcart Prize) is a bit of a doorstopper at over 450 pages, and there were times I thought it could have stood a little editing. Despite this, Henderson’s prose is gritty and mesmerizing as the story unspools into chaos. Pete is not terribly likable, and yet I found myself hoping he would sort out his problems and find a happy ending, not only for himself, but for the damaged people he is trying to help.

Henderson reveals the struggles of rural Americans including poverty, illegal drug use, homelessness, and broken families. Benjamin Pearl becomes symbolic of a modern America where fear of government intrusion and paranoia about losing freedom spirals into a madness that would be funny if it were not so terrifying.

Fourth of July Creek is a dark commentary on the problems facing our country. Pete Snows struggle to save the families of Tenmile, while losing the fight to save his own family, becomes a compelling story about one man’s quest to find meaning in a disconnected world.

Readers who enjoy novels set in the rural Pacific Northwest which are literary in style, will want to give this one a try. Smith Henderson is an author to watch.

Recommended.
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LibraryThing member ozzer
Henderson has crafted a gipping story with the theme of how children can be damaged and placed at risk by adults who somewhat compulsively engage in dicey behaviors. The mood of his novel is extremely dark. Except for the children, there is little to like or admire in most of the characters,
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including the narrator--Pete Snow. Pete is a social worker in Montana who is dedicated to saving children from risky circumstances caused by adults. Pete seems to connect well with the children while failing to do so with most adults. Ironically and inexplicably, his own lifestyle reflects a similar dysfunctional background and is totally inconsistent with his professional dedication. He comes from a dysfunctional family, is estranged from his brother who is a fugitive criminal, is estranged from his alcoholic wife, has an extreme drinking problem of his own, has an affair with a colleague who has similarly been damaged by a dysfunctional childhood and has a daughter who is a runaway. The latter character--Rachel/Rose--is developed completely through a series of interviews that Henderson inserts at various points in the narrative.

A secondary plot element follows Jeremiah Pearl and his devoted son, Benjamin. Pearl is a paranoid survivalist living in the wilderness with his large family. Except for Benjamin, the rest of the Pearl family is not well developed in the novel. Pearl is a hard man but seems to love his son and cares for his family. Initially, Ben seems to be just another example of a child abused by a self-absorbed parent, but as the narrative progresses, Henderson reveals a warmer relationships. We learn the family history through backstory--the mother is extremely religious, believes in omens and is prone to magical thinking. Because he is devoted to her, Jeremiah is excessively influenced by her strange behavior. Her problems result in a tragedy that cannot be revealed without spoiling the reading experience.

The narrative is totally engaging because of multiple plot threads, interesting characters and the rural Montana setting, which is ably evoked by Henderson. The novel is long and tries to do a lot, thus occasionally leaving minor issues unresolved. However, for the most part, Henderson manages to remain focused on his main theme in this fine novel.
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LibraryThing member jules72653
This book was grim and dark. I could not put it down and I won't soon forget it.
LibraryThing member KatyBee
I loved this novel - the excellent writing, the deeply developed characters, the gorgeous imagery all create the world perfectly. This is a story of human pain, fatal flaws, heartbreaking parent and child interactions, and just carrying on through the worst and occasionally the better of
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situations. Great writer for those who can read the darkest of stories and appreciate the sheer mastery of the telling.
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LibraryThing member sturlington
In 1980s rural Montana, social worker Pete Snow tries to keep his own life together while helping the children in his care.

Smith Henderson has written a very readable book, a gripping story with several insights about the hardships of life on the fringes of society. However, I had a major problem
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with the novel that kept me from enjoying it completely. The main male characters in the book -- Pete, his brother Luke, and the survivalist Jeremiah Pearl, who Pete encounters in the woods with his son Benjamin -- are, despite their deep flaws, basically noble men trying to do their best by their kids and families. Pete himself has a failed marriage, is battling alcoholism, has a runaway teenage daughter, and seems prone to criminality, but it's clear that he cares about the kids he comes across and only wants to help them in any way he can. In contrast, the women in this novel are all ruins. They are addicted to either drugs, alcohol or sex; they are failures as girlfriends, wives and, most especially, mothers. They may love their children, but inevitably wind up damaging them, sometimes irreparably. The only female character who's allowed to show some strength is Pete's runaway daughter, Rachel, but she may well be on the road to ruin herself -- her fate is a question mark. I found this treatment of men and women in the story to be incredibly lopsided, without justification -- a feeling that continued to grow as I continued to read. While all in all, I liked the book and admired the writing, I had to deduct a star just because of this one-sidedness.

Read in 2014.
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LibraryThing member eenerd
Absolute page turner, filled with really gorgeous writing and decadently rich characters. A clever, deep, and yet completely readable book. How nice! And I love that there were big complex words that needed to be looked up...no one does that anymore! Why? Smith Henderson obviously is a true
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craftsman, and a real talent.
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LibraryThing member flourgirl49
Pete Snow is a Montana Department of Family Services social worker in the 1970s who works with impoverished families and in particular with Jeremiah Pearl and his son Benjamin who live in the mountains and trust no one. It's a gritty story, made worse by the fact that Pete is an alcoholic who has a
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hard time dealing with the realities of his life - a cheating wife, a runaway daughter (who is still on the run at the end of the book), a fugitive brother, various friends who try to help him out but who are in bad shape themselves. Pete is a mess, and frankly there seems little hope that he will ever straighten himself out, which makes for a fairly depressing read. Still, not every book needs to be all sunlight and rainbows. It's the author's first book and a substantial achievement, even if it's not fun to read.
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LibraryThing member michaelbartley
This is one if not the darkess novel I've read. It the story of social worker in Montina and his clients. One client is young teenager boy, father not in his life, his mother druggie. the boy has a 4 year sister, she is perhaps the most sane and healthy person in the novel. the social worker other
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main client is the son 14 of surivalist that lives in the wilds. his mother is a born again christen and knows that god talks to her. she kills the boy's sibbings and then herself. the sw gets involved with a fellow sw, who on the side turns tricks. the sw's daughter, 14, moves to texas with the ex. the daugher ends running away and becomes a sex worker. to top things off the sw borther is a futivie from the law. the novel is very well written and does explore the ideas of fate and freedom. while it is very dark i recommend it
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Awards

Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2016)
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Shortlist — Fiction — 2014)
Oregon Book Awards (Finalist — 2015)

Language

Original language

English

Barcode

6968
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