I did not enjoy this book very much. I found it a kind of souring experience, and a weird mix of misplaced sympathy and character building, and stark but also kind of affected language used to create the story, the characters and the tone.
In short, it felt a lot like poverty porn. And maybe that’s just the late 1980s for you in terms of what books even to be about any more. I’ve read a lot of Southern Gothic novels, as well as, Southern novels that are less Gothic, but still seek to understand underrepresented voices. And this appeal has always spread to other parts of the country. Morris, I think, is from the Northeast and no one part of the country has a monopoly of impoverished communities. But this novel felt that it was about the communities that the characters came from and not from them, the way that very good writing often works. And when your gaze is outside, you have to bring more to it — Flannery O’Connor’s irony, William Faulkner’s sympathy — but here it feels exploitative. And to what end?
The novel is about a fairly grotesque couple, a man that gets continuously mocked at his work and a youngish “harlot” character who run away together–fine so far–and kidnap a toddler. Oh. And then spend five years on the road in a kind of “family.”
So the final effect here is like horror-show version of Raising Arizona blended with a horror-show version of The Shipping News, both of which are significantly better.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Vanished-Novel-Mary-McGarry-Morris-ebook/dp/B076RCS4GJ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1DRGUC7763CKR&keywords=vanished+mary+mcgarry+morris&qid=1553777264&s=gateway&sprefix=vanished+mary%2Caps%2C681&sr=8-1)