The Recipe for Revolution

Starred review from December 1, 2019

Fans of Chute's earlier work will welcome the return of the quixotic characters introduced in her award-winning debut novel, The Beans of Egypt, Maine. This newest is a sprawling, lavish saga about the rural folks of Heart's Content Road as they live, work, and plan for the future in their isolated realm. At the center of Chute's story is 39-year-old Gordon St. Onge, known as the Prophet and considered by some a terrorist cult leader. He is the backbone of the Settlement, a hidden, back-to-the-land enclave of cottages, gardens, orchards, and outbuildings where he holds sway over his many wives and children, assorted other families, and the Border Mountain Militia. Upstart Brianna and other teens burning with ideas different from Gordon's form the True Maine Militia to foment change of their own, penning a revolutionary document titled The Recipe that comes to the attention of Bruce Hummer, the aging CEO of a multinational company. What finally results is an anti-corporate revolt fanning out beyond little dot-on-the-map Egypt, ME. VERDICT Narrated by so many characters that Chute provides a lengthy character list, this quirky, deliciously inventive, deeply honest story portrays family feuds, warring political factions, and the complex layers of any community.--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2019
Third volume in Chute's blistering series about the Settlement, a radical, politically incorrect collective of the disorderly and disaffected in rural Maine. The Settlement revolves around "Prophet" Gordon St. Onge, who rails against corporations, the media, and the war machine; he also has 19 "wives," even more guns, and a friendly relationship with several right-wing militias. However, although the novel takes place from 1990 to 2000, the election of Donald Trump has clearly prompted its author to do some thinking about her previous willingness to declare her characters "no-wing." Chute is at pains to have Gordon denounce "Republican bullshit" and "so-called Christians" to his militia buddies, and she's backed off her previous contempt for middle-class progressives; Settlement residents form a relationship of wary mutual respect with a group of left-wing grassroots organizers. Nonetheless, Gordon's and his author's hearts are always with "the poor, meek, dishonored, deformed, disheartened, and displaced," and Chute makes it brutally clear that until the left gets over its distaste for "redneck[s]" and poor whites who refuse to be manipulated by racists, the same people will keep running the world. (The sexual power of teenage girls is another third-rail topic she fearlessly tackles.) The action here runs parallel to events in The School on Heart's Content Road (2008) and Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves (2014) but spotlights different people from her vast cast of characters. Fifteen-year-old Brianna Vandermast, newest of the wives, emerges as the leader of the Settlement's younger generation; their end run around Gordon toward even more radical dissent drives what there is of a plot. A manifesto and a mass rally prompt increasingly menacing government harassment and a warning of more nefarious deeds to come from corporate CEO Bruce Hummer, his conscience apparently pricked by his rapidly growing cancers. A few juicy personal conflicts keep the novel from devolving entirely into a political tract--but then again, Chute's fierce political vision has always been the most interesting thing about her work. Messy, confrontational, way too long--and essential reading.

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January 1, 2020
Chute (Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves, 2014) returns to the Settlement in the third novel in a projected five-book series. Gordon St. Onge, known as "The Prophet," lives off the grid with his followers in rural Maine. Rumored to have 19 wives and a large stash of guns, he dedicates himself to destroying corporations, the media, and the country's penchant for war. Fifteen-year-old Brianna, a new and eager member of the Settlement, harnesses the revolutionary power of her fellow teens to form the True Maine Militia. Their political tract, The Recipe, ends up in the hands of corporate CEO Bruce Hummer. A chance meeting between Hummer and Gordon leaves Gordon facing a potential uprising that could go well beyond Maine's borders. Chute once again takes on politics, class, and the complexities of friendship and love, managing her multiple characters and viewpoints with the use of icons. Rather than plot, characters and relationships drive this novel with a fierce political vision that feels uniquely tailored for our times.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)