Mill Town

Synopsis: Part memoir, part environmental expose, Kerri Arsenault describes growing up in Mexico, Maine. This community has revolved around the local paper mill for over a century, and now has earned the nickname of “Cancer Valley” due to high rates of childhood and adult cancers. Arsenault attempts to understand how a community accepts the Faustian exchange of health for a paycheck, interweaving her personal memoir, stories of Acadian migration and more.

Review: I very much wanted to like this book. I generally love memoirs. This is a community that I know fairly well. In full disclosure, I am an oncologist who has treated many residents of Mexico over the last 30 years, so I think I have an informed background for the subject matter. Sadly, I just didn’t care for this book. There are a lot of threads here, between the personal memoir, the mill/cancer story, geneology, history of Acadian migration, or the current topic of Nestle tapping into local aquifers. Thematically, it’s just all over the place. The timeline of the book is confusing, without a strong narrative to pull the story together. At the end, I just couldn’t figure out what this book wanted to be.

Rating: 2/5

Recipe: Chicken Fricot is a classic Acadian stew, fricot meaning “feast” in Normand dialect. It’s basically chicken and dumplings which is great in any language.

Dumplings

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 cup cold water

Fricot

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces

2 tablespoons butter

1 large onion, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

12 cups water

salt and pepper

1 tablespoon summer savory

5 cups potatoes cut into bite size pieces

1) In a large stock pot, cook the chicken pieces in butter until golden brown, remove and set aside.

2) Saute onions, carrots and celery, adding more butter if needed.

3) Add water, chicken, salt and pepper to taste, and savory. Simmer until chicken is tender

4) Add the potatoes and cook another 20 minutes.

5) Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Gradually add cold water.

6) Drop dumpling mixture into the fricot one spoonful at a time about 7 minutes before ready to serve. Keep covered until the dumplings are cooked through.