A review by glenmowrer
Pickard County Atlas by Chris Harding Thornton

2.0

US working class white folks are the subject of many nowadays. Most are insightful and capture the angst of mid-Americans working with little prospect of much to show for it. Unfortunately for me this effort's attempt is clumsy and more than occasionally condescending. The writer wants us to believe that she is knowledgeable about this culture but evidences she really isn't. (Cars do not run fast when started because the timing is off, it is almost always the auto choke, for example.) Making fun of the decor of double wide trailers is embarrassing. In the end, however, the moral of the story seems to be that an unhappy housewife is appropriate in her disliking her daughter whom she attempts to abandon in a clothing store, having sexual relations on impulse, and regretting her husband's hard efforts to support the family. I do give respect to the ambiguity of the dialogue. Conversations are terse and incomplete, explained more by the situation than the words. Also well done are the somewhat odd personalities the brothers, one a family embarrassment is actually given to insight and philosophic comment. The other is hard working and dedicated to family. How they end up is not credible however. And the end is absurd.