Book Review: "Stay and Fight" by Madeline ffitch
“Stay and Fight” by Madeline ffitch
Synopsis: Helen arrives in Appalachian Ohio full of love and her boyfriend’s ideas for living off the land. Too soon, with winter coming, he calls it quits. Helped by Rudy—her government-questioning, wisdom-spouting, seasonal-affective-disordered boss—and a neighbor couple, Helen makes it to spring. Those neighbors, Karen and Lily, are awaiting the arrival of their first child, a boy, which means their time at the Women’s Land Trust must end.
So Helen invites the new family to throw in with her—they’ll split the work and the food, build a house, and make a life that sustains them, if barely, for years. Then young Perley decides he wants to go to school. And Rudy sets up a fruit-tree nursery on the pipeline easement edging their land. The outside world is brought clamoring into their makeshift family.
Set in a region known for its independent spirit, Stay and Fight shakes up what it means to be a family, to live well, to make peace with nature and make deals with the system. It is a protest novel that challenges our notions of effective action. It is a family novel that refuses to limit the term. And it is a marvel of storytelling that both breaks with tradition and celebrates it. Best of all, it is full of flawed, cantankerous, flesh-and-blood characters who remind us that conflict isn't the end of love, but the real beginning.
Absorbingly spun, perfectly voiced, and disruptively political, Madeline ffitch's Stay and Fight forces us to reimagine an Appalachia—and an America—we think we know. And it takes us, laughing and fighting, into a new understanding of what it means to love and to be free.—Macmillan
Rating (out of 5): 4.25
Review: Initially, I hesitated to pick this book up—even though the synopsis seemed compelling to me, I hate everything that has to do with tackling nature. I occasionally enjoy being outside, but the idea of homesteading and vermin and no plumbing is enough to make me want to take a long nap. And as a city mouse raised by city mice, I have never so much as camped for one night in my life. I’m so glad that I let my curiosity win out and read this one.
ffitch’s prose is arresting and often laugh-out-loud funny. In Helen, Lily, and Karen, everyone will recognize a bit of themselves. The story is told through alternating narratives, and this is not an easy task—it’s a rare, talented author that can make each voice sound distinctive and compelling. ffitch succeeds handily. I don’t love reading narratives from young children, generally, but Perley’s voice is so uniquely his own and such good insight into his caretakers, that I was compelled by it.
“Stay and Fight” is deeply political without being even momentarily preachy. It alternately tackles oil pipelines, LGBT issues, feminism, race, class, poverty, and education. While the book takes sides, it is a credit to ffitch that none of the political issues read as ham-fisted or knee-jerk side-taking.
Each character is also deeply loveable. When Perley is taken from “his women,” we might predict that we’d hate the caseworker, or his foster family. Instead, ffitch humanizes everyone so completely, that while of course we are rooting for Perley’s return, he isn’t thrust into a Dickensian reality.
Mostly, this book succeeds in telling a story of the power of love within chosen family, even when that love is colored by the resentment of daily conflict. It is a funny, arresting, deeply original story of a part of our country that is rarely detailed with any nuance or true compassion.
TL;DR: An utterly original, surprising, endearing, often hilarious family narrative.
If you liked this, try:
“Marilou is Everywhere” by Sarah Elaine Smith
“The Female Persuasion” by Meg Wolitzer
“The Jetsetters” by Amanda Eyre Ward (my review here)
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