Onlookers

I had been wondering how relations worked between neighbors in places like Charlottesville, Virginia, where the removal of public statues of Confederate figures like Robert E. Lee were up for debate over its removal. What are these people really like, who are they when they're not against something, but just kickin' back and chillin'? And what is it like to be the child of one of them right now, or to have been? This collection of stories offered an informative, heartbreaking, heartwarming, and even humorous array of such voices that helps us understand how it can, and did, happen here.

We meet recurring characters in a sprawling network of friends, family, and coworkers: Monica, Jeanette, Jonah, Case, and George Matts, to name a few. They all give their own view of Charlottesville and the neighbors who, besides voting for Trump and being rather ignorant of other ways of living, are otherwise nice, well-meaning people. Except for the narcissists, of course.

Particularly interesting to me was how young friends were shown to get pulled in to cultist groups like the Proud Boys or the Tiki Torchers. Superstitious young women and rabble-rousing young men whose parents are detached and swept up in their own problems or somehow mentally ill from generational trauma (thanks, capitalism), so their teens and young adult children were free to roam the streets or the internet and meet bad influences, getting up to white nationalist trouble.

Ann Beattie has a fast-paced style of writing that packs a lot into few words. It's very economical, which means you really have to read closely. It's easy to miss something small but crucial. Which is good—this is definitely not a book that will put you to sleep. It's an engaging ride, helping you through the dark times with a much needed sense of humor.

This book comes from such valuable perspectives, especially at this time of lawmakers making decisions for states that may not reflect the views of many communities there. It shows us the importance of remembering the diversity of views even within conservative towns; and it's an excellent opportunity to see these perspectives playing together in various situations based on true events and get a deeper understanding.

It's the hot gossip. The small-town family drama. The realness.