Product Description

Senator Kip Davies is dead, shot execution-style by a man news reports call a member of "an ultra-right-wing militia" from Maine. The hunt for the killer is nationwide, and yet the wounded assassin, Robert Drummond, has found refuge where he might least expect it-in the home of an out-of-town senator. There, the senator's wife and daughter become Drummond's protectors-if not his hostages-while he grows stronger during the next several heart-pulsing weeks. As they become intimately involved with Drummond, the two women learn firsthand the philosophy and psychology of the militia movement that has become such a terrifying puzzlement in America. And when their desperate drama ends, in a fashion at once unpredictable and inevitable, it brings with it a measure of understanding of how this country functions and dysfunctions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2083680 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-06
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 242 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Chute's (Merry Men) latest novel is so alarming in theme, farfetched in plot, graceless and sloppy in prose and close to pornographic in tone that it's difficult to consider it an effort by a serious writer. Robert "Ruff" Drummond, a construction worker from Maine and a member of a right-wing militia, assassinates a U.S. senator in Boston. (This is okay, we learn, because the senator is a sleaze and, moreover, a tool of the big corporations that run America and crush the poor.) Badly wounded, Robert makes it to the palatial home of his intended next victim, Senator Jerry Creighton (who is in Washington)Aand collapses. The caretakers who discover Robert are so sympathetic to the idea of the have-nots rising up to kill the oppressors that they enlist the cooperation of the senator's daughter Kristy, who decides to shelter and nurse Robert rather than turn him over to the authorities. Kristy, an ultra-feminist Radcliffe grad and professor of women's studies, is at home because she's having a nervous breakdown. As soon as she lays eyes on Robert, she is smitten, and after she views "the shaking of his loose penis" and takes his temperature by means of a rectal thermometer, she is a bundle of erotic nerve endings waiting to be fulfilled. When Robert regains consciousness, he is adorableAin spite of his garish tattoos, which include a blue swastika. He chuckles, he tells jokes, he plays chess with Kristy and her mother, Connie, who is a similarly randy sort, and soon Robert is boffing both women. Reactions to this overheated tract may range from hilarity to disgust, as the narrative exudes outrage and resentment toward a government that ostensibly harasses people who own guns, refuses to legalize marijuana and exposes children to highfalutin theories of education. It is pulp fiction of the lowest order, manipulative and totally implausible. (Would Kristy and Connie spontaneously betray their "liberal" principles and protect Robert if he weren't such a hunk?) Chute's bombast hits high gear as her characters agree that because the government exploits poor people in menial jobs, the government must be swept away. In an author's note, Chute says that she's been working on a larger book for years, which will be "the true story" of the militia movement in the Northeast. One hopes it will have more sense and literary merit than this one. (May) FYI: Chute's publisher says that "she has been active in the militia movement for some time."
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Robert Drummond, a 44-year-old member of an ultra-right-wing Maine militia, puts a gun to the head of a U.S. senator and pulls the trigger. Drummond, shot by law enforcement officers at the scene, flees to the Beacon Hill mansion of another senator, Jerry Creighton. Discovered bleeding and near death by the oft-absent senator's beautiful young daughter, Kristy, and his feisty, attractive, free-thinking wife, Connie, Drummond is hidden in the daughter's top-floor quarters and nursed back to health by a local vet, the family's servants, and the Creighton women. Chute, herself actively involved in two militias and the author of the widely acclaimed and terrifically written The Beans of Egypt, Maine (LJ 3/1/85), would have the reader believe that these two privileged women willingly fall under the sexual thrall of a boorish, violent man whose bedroom behavior is as vulgar as his full-body tattoos. The novel deteriorates further when it is revealed that Drummond sought refuge on this particular estate in order to assassinate Senator Creighton as well, and still the women protect him and assist in his escape. Not recommended.?Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Another blast of proletarian rage from Chute, but lacking, regrettably, the solid characterizations that anchored Merry Men (1994) and The Beans of Egypt, Maine (1985). Generally considered a left-wing writer, Chute here declares herself no-wing [Acknowledgments] as she depicts the odyssey of a putative rightist from Maine whose heroes are Latin American guerrillas. Robert Drummond has assassinated US Senator Kip Davies in a Boston hotel; four fellow members of the Snow Men militia are dead, but the badly wounded Robert finds his way to the Beacon Hill home of another senator, liberal Jerry Creighton. Hes sheltered there by the Kristy Creighton, the senators daughter, and her mother, Connie, both of whom find the militia man as sexually irresistible as he is politically disturbing. The plot (never Chutes strong point) consists basically of Roberts convalescence over a month or so as he enlightens the privileged Creighton women about the ugly realities of American life and as the FBI closes in. In the past, Chutes fiery denunciations of corporate capitalisms impact on poor people have worked in tandem with strong fictional portraits. Here, the upper-middle-class Kristy and Connie are embarrassing clichs with insufficiently delineated inner lives; the spiritual crisis that has brought Kristy home from her job as chair of a womens studies program, for example, is alluded to but never explained. Robert is a fuller character, and Chute commendably refuses to clean up his messy opinions (dead-on observations about the way politicians of all parties serve big business mixed with creepy diatribes against this fuckin socialist setup and arrogant bitch broad feminists). But the novels politics are as incoherent as Drummondsmaking for an aesthetic and, arguably, a moral failure. Chutes blunt class-consciousness and energetic prose are as bracing as ever. Lets hope that the longer work-in-progress she refers to in the Authors Note (the `true story of the `Militia Movement in New England as I have experienced it) makes better use of them. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

An embarrassingly poor piece of writing
This novel is not worth the reader's time and energy, to say nothing of investment. It is miserably written--full of cliches, contradictions in description, irrelevant detail, and simple-minded prose. It would be useful only as example to my English students on 'what not to do.' It surely did not have an editor. The story is unbelieveable and full of gratuitous description of male genitals; the identity of the narrator is never clear--other than the author apparently preaching her politics in the form of the 'royal we.' The dog in the story achieves godlike omniscience. All of the book's shallow and juvenile blather makes one hope any serious militia member would distance himself from this as presentation of worthwhile ideas. It insults the reader with its lack of depth.

A political philosphy not often seen in mainstream fiction
I read Carolyn Chute's first novel, "The Beans of Egypt, Maine" in 1985. It introduced me to a world of the working poor in a rural area of Maine and I remember how it opened my eyes to their poverty. In "Snow Man", Ms. Chute's fourth novel, some of this territory is familiar. But unlike her other book, this is not a big rambling family saga. Instead, it is a tightly drawn and fast paced story of an urban terrorist, Robert Drummond, a member of a militia, who publicly murders a senator in Boston. Wounded, he flees to the home of another senator who is off in Washington, and therefore away from his home at the time. Here, this second senator's wife and daughter nurse the fugitive back to health and hide him from the authorities.

Ms. Chute's prose is tense and clear although she has a tendency to use words like "orangey" a little too often. She's particularly good at describing wounds and Robert Drummond's painful shoulder wound is a throbbing reminder of his discomfort. But the rest of his hiding-out time certainly is pleasant and there's seduction at play here too, and not just on a physical level. He's portrayed as a strong and sympathetic character and we hear his philosophy of life over and over again. It's shown in bitter contrast to the life of the two upper class women taking care of him. For example, when he tells them his wife had to go out and get a job, the senator's daughter, who just happens to be a professor of women's studies, makes a comment about the need for women to pursue careers and get out of the house. Then she asks what kind of job his wife got. Robert's answer is simple - "McDonalds". There are constant references like that illustrating yuppie naivety about what it means to be poor in America.

I read this novel quickly as the story moved along well, but I just couldn't get into the characters. It seemed unlikely that the two women would become so enamored with this man even though he comes across as attractive and macho. All the people are stereotypes, created by Ms. Chute to forward her own political philosophy. In a way this is refreshing because it is a philosophy not often seen in mainstream fiction. But I never really understood why Robert Drummond's frustration with his poverty and anger about corporate greed would make him want to take the life of another human being. I wonder though, if I, too, am just being naïve.

Those who might want a glimpse into the thought processes of a militiaman might find this book interesting. However, it is only a glimpse and doesn't go deep enough. And the story, while well crafted, is basically superficial.

Disappointing
I anticipated another wonderful Carolyn Chute book when I picked this one up. I did not find any of the colorful characters and unique story that she has entertained me with in the past. It was so far off from her other books, it makes me wonder where she wrote it and why she wrote it.