The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne

Men do live in Waterville, Maine. They even live in Petit Canada, the staunchly French neighborhood where “people [have] more trouble than money.” But the town’s men seem mostly beside the point. The women, on the other hand, use “visiting”—sitting over coffee—as time to “organize, decide neighborhood business, and leverage collective will to solve problems.” Chief at both causing and solving those problems is self-proclaimed “goddam cast-iron bitch” Babs Dionne, who runs the town and is feared by all, but also fiercely loved. A teenage Babs commits a crime as the book opens, one that follows her over the decades of the story, corroding her ability to show love to the children she adores. One of them, Sis, is now missing and the family suspects her drunken husband is to blame. Babs and her other daughter, Lori, who’s using drugs to push down the PTSD she gained in Afghanistan, set out separately to find the woman, Lori desperate to spare Babs from the pain of likely tragedy. At the same time, a character known as “The Man” is not so gently working to convince Babs that the underworld business she’s controlled for decades is his now. We’ll see about that. Currie’s tale and his powerful writing are reminiscent of small-town sagas by Richard Russo, and are peopled by the same kinds of won’t-let-you-go characters. An immersive book to be savored.