You can almost hear it, Rubie’s skeleton rearranging itself, one bone set against the other, the angry blood backing down.
The Beans of Egypt, Maine is a novel written by Carolyn Chute. Released in 1985, it is the first novel in Chute's Egypt, Maine series and tells of the titular clan.
Characters[]
- Earlene Pomerleau - one of the Beans' neighbours, who watches the clan
- Lee Pomerleau - Earlene's husband
- Reuben "Rubie" Bean - a violent alcoholic
- Roberta Bean - the matriarch of the family
- Beal Bean - Reuben's nephew
rest to be added
Publisher's summary[]
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. There is cousin 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.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Sound and the Fury | William Faulkner | 1929 | A novel which details a similar family |
| Tobacco Road | Erskine Caldwell | 1932 | A novel with a somewhat similar setting |
| The Color Purple | Alice Walker | 1982 | A novel with a somewhat similar setting |
| Wise Blood | Flannery O'Connor | 1952 | A novel with a somewhat similar setting |
| The Heart is a Lonely Hunter | Carson McCullers | 1940 | A novel with a somewhat similar setting |
Sources[]
- Goodreads
- Wikipedia