The Shadow Knows

"The women grow their hair long and leave it; the men drive pick-ups. The economy is down the tubes, politics what you would expect. On the turnpike between Oklahoma City and Chickasha, I pass a billboard saying SOCIALISM IS WRONG." --Beverly Lowry, page 257 of Writing Creative Nonfiction

Beverly Lowry presents us with the disturbing true story of a family forgotten in rural America. I think the voice Lowry takes on in this piece is really effective for presenting the reader with the brutal truth of the situation at hand. She interviews people who knew the Dutton family and paints a picture of the world that the two boys come from. The sentences I quoted are just one example of her giving us a "snapshot" of the place she was at. Her writing is clear and blends thoughts with the concrete. She paints characters as more than one-dimensional, as she does the setting for this sordid story.