The Suburbs of Heaven

Publisher Marketing: What would drive easy-going, likable Jim Hutchins to pick up a twelve-gauge and head for his sworn enemy? The IRS threatening to garnish his mechanic's wages? His kids providing the police department full-time employment? His grief-sodden wife making money by dancing naked for his brother-in-law? Better ask what's kept him from picking it up before--His wits? His keen insights into human pretension? His wry sense of humor? His rough-hewn knowledge of the human heart? Tension rules until the end as "The Suburbs of Heaven balances heartbreak and black comedic hilarity." (Newsday.) "Biting, ribald ... engaging characters... What gives The Suburbs of Heaven much of its charm are the voices of its narrators, the five Hutchinses. Each of them is endowed with a similar blunt and idiosyncratic eloquence."--The New York Times Book Review. "At last New Hampshire has her Faulkner. This powerful and disturbing novel chronicles the hardscrabble lives of the Hutchins clan and their colorful, compelling neighbors. Here's a tale of betrayal and loss, ignorance and poverty. Merle Drown knows that what's important is the exploration of the human heart in conflict with itself."--John Dufresne, author of Love Warps the Mind a Little Review Citations: New York Times 02/17/2002 pg. 20 (EAN 9780425181560, Mass Market Paperbound) Publishers Weekly 11/22/1999 pg. 41 (EAN 9781569471821, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Kirkus Reviews 12/15/1999 pg. 1901 (EAN 9781569471821, Hardcover) Library Journal 01/01/2000 pg. 157 (EAN 9781569471821, Hardcover) New York Times 03/05/2000 pg. 16 (EAN 9781569471821, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Drown, Merle A native of Northern New England, Merle Drown has written stories, essays, plays, reviews, and two novels, Plowing Up a Snake and The Suburbs of Heaven. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Hampshire Arts Council and teaches in Southern New Hampshire University's M. F. A. program. The father of three sons, he lives with his wife Teresa Ceballos in Concord, New Hampshire, and Toronto