The Twelve-Mile Straight (2017) by Eleanor Henderson

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

The Twelve-Mile Straight (2017)

 by Eleanor Henderson

Ben Hill County, Georgia

Georgia: 23/24

    All things being equal I'll always prefer a historical novel or whatever merit to a contemporary work of fiction within the precincts of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America project.  Even if I don't care for the novel, I frequently learn about the history, particularly in the rural and neglected (from a literary perspective) portions of the country.  In rural Georgia I'm reading about the intertwined system of turpentine camps and liquor stills- first, an area will be a turpentine camp and then, after the environment is degraded, you use the same area for a liquor still.  The Twelve-Mile Straight, set in the 1930's, revolves around the life of a rural producer of still liquor and his daughter, a whore.  When the daughter is impregnated by the grandson of the local bigwig, Dad takes the opportunity to conceal the paternity of the child of his African American servant (him.)

  This leads to a series of very unfortunate events that involves murder, small-town sensationalism and of course, race.  I listened to the Audiobook, it took forever.