Mill town : reckoning with what remains / Kerri Arsenault.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Arsenault, Kerri, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Arsenault, Kerri--Family.

Arsenault, Kerri.

Working class--Maine--Mexico (Town)--Biography.

Working class.

Pollution.

Paper industry--Health aspects.

Paper industry.

Paper industry--Environmental aspects.

Mexico (Me. : Town)--Biography.

Mexico (Me. : Town).

Mexico (Me. : Town)--Social life and customs.

Rumford Mill.

Rumford (Me.)--Biography.

Rumford (Me.).

Paper industry--Environmental aspects--Maine--Oxford County.

Paper industry--Health aspects--Maine--Oxford County.

Pollution--Androscoggin River Region (N.H. and Me.)--Anecdotes.

Androscoggin River Region (N.H. and Me.)--Environmental conditions.

Androscoggin River Region (N.H. and Me.).

Ecology.

Families.

Maine--Mexico (Town).

Maine--Oxford County.

Maine--Rumford.

Genre:

Anecdotes.

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

x, 354 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2020.

Summary:

"A galvanizing and powerful debut, Mill Town is an American story, a human predicament, and a moral wake-up call that asks: what are we willing to tolerate and whose lives are we willing to sacrifice for our own survival? Kerri Arsenault grew up in the rural working class town of Mexico, Maine. For over 100 years the community orbited around a paper mill that employs most townspeople, including three generations of Arsenault's own family. Years after she moved away, Arsenault realized the price she paid for that seemingly secure childhood. The mill, while providing livelihoods for nearly everyone, also contributed to the destruction of the environment and the decline of the town's economic, moral, and emotional health in a slow-moving catastrophe, earning the area the nickname "Cancer Valley." In Mill Town, Arsenault undertakes an excavation of a collective past, sifting through historical archives and scientific reports, talking to family and neighbors, and examining her own childhood to present a portrait of a community that illuminates not only the ruin of her hometown and the collapse of the working-class of America, but also the hazards of both living in and leaving home, and the silences we are all afraid to violate. In exquisite prose, Arsenault explores the corruption of bodies: the human body, bodies of water, and governmental bodies, and what it's like to come from a place you love but doesn't always love you back"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. What Goes Around, Comes Around

2. What Goes Up Must Come Down

3. Connecting with Dot

4. Happy Days

5. With Great Power

6. Family and Other Acts of Omission

7. Margins of Safety

8. Vacationland

Interlude

9. What Remains

10. Strike One, Strike Two

11. Hope Springs Eternal

12. Pipe Dreams

13. Going Downhill

14. The End of the Line

15. Buried in Paper

16. The Truth Lies Somewhere.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [319]-354).

ISBN:

9781250155931

1250155932

OCLC:

1157732425