In the opening of this book, a seventeen-year-old kid called Eddie uses the bloody stumps where his hands used to be to drive a stolen car from BFE Louisiana to Houston and eventually to Minnesota. But why? Why does this kid have no hands? What is he escaping from? Why did he leave his mother behind and why isn’t he in any hurry to go back and get her?
It turns out that Eddie has escaped from a scam job at a farm called Delicious Foods, where the people in charge recruit down-on-their-luck men and women to perform hard labor in exchange for less than nothing – a crushing debt created by having to pay for room, board, and the drugs that make the workers think that all of this is a good idea. The book tells the story of how he and his mom got there, stayed there, and then eventually decided to leave, which was much easier said than done.
I greatly enjoyed this story, which depicts crushing poverty in all its reality but keeps a dark sense of humor, especially in the chapters narrated by the farm’s drug of choice. The author does a great job of showing how people can become used to the worst living conditions and even think they’re pretty okay, when it’s obvious to everyone that they’re absolutely not. This is a great book for someone looking for a story they’ve never quite seen before.
--Alison McCarty, Callahan Branch Library
Find Delicious Foods in the Nassau County Public Library System catalog.
It turns out that Eddie has escaped from a scam job at a farm called Delicious Foods, where the people in charge recruit down-on-their-luck men and women to perform hard labor in exchange for less than nothing – a crushing debt created by having to pay for room, board, and the drugs that make the workers think that all of this is a good idea. The book tells the story of how he and his mom got there, stayed there, and then eventually decided to leave, which was much easier said than done.
I greatly enjoyed this story, which depicts crushing poverty in all its reality but keeps a dark sense of humor, especially in the chapters narrated by the farm’s drug of choice. The author does a great job of showing how people can become used to the worst living conditions and even think they’re pretty okay, when it’s obvious to everyone that they’re absolutely not. This is a great book for someone looking for a story they’ve never quite seen before.
--Alison McCarty, Callahan Branch Library
Find Delicious Foods in the Nassau County Public Library System catalog.