The story of a small town family, spanning about forty years, starting in the early 1960s. The Beans are a numerous, large family. They tend to be physically imposing and are trashy and lawless with the men of the family rough and abusive. The men fill their yards with broken down vehicles while their wives and girl friends fill their homes with multiple children. They are loud and coarse and vulgar and just the kind of people you don't want living next door to you.
Lee and his young daughter Earlene live across the road from the Beans' trailer house. Lee constantly criticizes the Beans to his daughter. She is not allowed to go over there but naturally she does. And when her transgressions are discovered, Lee washes her mouth out with soap. Years later, and Earlene is still living at home and is a young adult, she once again displeases her father and he washes out her mouth with shampoo. Which is how she ends up in the arms of Beal Bean and pregnant with his baby.
Earlene becomes more and more involved with the Beal and his family. She goes from living a secure life with her father and his parents to living in a shack with no electricity, no running water and no indoor toilet.
What a story. Not a single character in this story made any sense to me. I found them all repulsive and deplorable. I tried to like Beal Bean, but he turns out to be a cheat, a poacher and pretty useless. I think the reader is intended to like Earlene, though why I don't know. Nothing about her or any of the characters was the least bit appealing.
As I've said before, it's hard to enjoy a story when you don't like any of the characters.
Someone must have liked the novel, though. It was made into a movie released in 1994.
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