Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes) : a Novel.

Description

A bittersweet, seriously funny novel of a life, a small town, and a key to our troubled times traced through a newspaper columnist\u2019s half-century of taking in, and taking on, the world The curmudgeon who wrote the column \u201cRamblin\u2019s by Walt\u201d in the Granite Creek Gazette dismissed his successor as \u201cpuking on paper.\u201d But when Haze Evans first appeared in the small-town newspaper, she earned fans by writing a story about her bachelor uncle who brought a Queen of the Rodeo to Thanksgiving dinner. Now, fifty years later, when the beloved columnist suffers a massive stroke and falls into a coma, publisher Susan McGrath fills the void (temporarily, she hopes) with Haze\u2019s past columns, along with the occasional reprinted responses from readers. Most letters were favorable, although Haze did have her trolls; one Joseph Snell in particular dubbed her \u201cliberal\u201d ideas the \u201cchronicles of a radical hag.\u201d Never censoring herself, Haze chose to mollify her critics with homey recipes—recognizing, in her constantly practical approach to the world and her community, that buttery Almond Crescents will certainly \u201cmelt away any misdirected anger.\u201dFramed by news stories of half a century and annotated with the town\u2019s chorus of voices, Haze\u2019s story unfolds, as do those of others touched by the Granite Creek Gazette, including Susan, struggling with her troubled marriage, and her teenage son Sam, who—much to his surprise—enjoys his summer job reading the paper archives and discovers secrets that have been locked in the files for decades, along with sad and surprising truths about Haze\u2019s past. With her customary warmth and wit, Lorna Landvik summons a lifetime at once lost and recovered, a complicated past that speaks with knowing eloquence to a confused present. Her topical but timeless Chronicles of a Radical Hag reminds us—sometimes with a subtle touch, sometimes with gobsmacking humor—of the power of words and of silence, as well as the wonder of finding in each other what we never even knew we were missing.