Rating: 
Summary: Ugly Little Slice of Life
Review: For years I have used this book to give a little reality check to students considering direct service work in the human services world. Do they see themselves as open and accepting of so alien a culture? Are they prepared to work with families like the Beans by looking for strengths on which to build? The Beans are everywhere: in rural Maine, the Ozarks, the Oklahoma panhandle and the dreary delta of the Mississippi.
They have trailer towns full of the Beans in Idaho and Michigan.
They are overlooked because we do not want to see their shacks as we drive down our road, or hear their dogs howling in the cold of long winter nights. To see them is to acknowledge that they have carved out a lifestyle from the underbelly of ours, and that they breed and prosper. And sometimes even have dignity and rights.
Rating:
Summary: After thirty plus years of reading this is the best
Review: It's a telling comentary on American culture that there are 647 reviews of "Who Moved My Cheese" and only 3 of "The Beans". Marcuse was right! But then again he was wrong because here you are thinking about buying "The Beans of Egypt, Maine". All the finest art creates a world of it's own. In the best art that world is a completely new creation, a singular vision and transformation of and by the artist. That world pulls you in, as a spiral, sometimes against your will, because of it's strangness to you, but if you're lucky the transformation that was the artist's becomes your transformation also. That is the "miracle" of great art, a miracle second only to life itself and that is what Chute has acomplished here. When other books of the late 20th century have faded away, this book will remain.
Rating: 
Summary: How Low can they go?
Review: The Bean family consists of several generations of poor, uneducated, working folk in the rural town of Egypt, Maine. The author has created a community where the family members (and there are plenty of `em) depend on each other for basic survival needs but little else. I found that very few of the characters were likable; however, I acknowledge the wonderfully crafted language and simplistic prose that make up the novel. I'm glad I read the "finished" version; were it not for this edition, I may have fallen victim to the very classism that the author criticizes in the postscripts. Although the author challenges the reader to empathize with the struggles of the Beans, it was difficult for me to read the book without reading incestuous behavior into the daily lives and inner workings of the family. I don't want to believe that the incestuous overtones I garnered from the text are due to an "upper/middle-class" view of the poorest of America's citizens. I'm more apt to believe that the Beans are a clan without boundaries and with few principles. It is possible to be destitute, uneducated, unemployed, undernourished, and unvalued but still have a few basic human values that extend beyond the shelter and protection of the family . . . isn't it? The story is interesting. The pace is fitting. Although I never felt like putting the book down, I didn't plough through it either. I consider this a good read because it challenges the way that I think about love and familial affection. This is an excellent group read as well - the more perspectives the better. Have at it!
Rating:
Summary: How Low can they go?
Review: The Bean family consists of several generations of poor, uneducated, working folk in the rural town of Egypt, Maine. The author has created a community where the family members (and there are plenty of 'em) depend on each other for basic survival needs but little else. I found that very few of the characters were likable; however, I acknowledge the wonderfully crafted language and simplistic prose that make up the novel. I'm glad I read the "finished" version; were it not for this edition, I may have fallen victim to the very classism that the author criticizes in the postscripts. Although the author challenges the reader to empathize with the struggles of the Beans, it was difficult for me to read the book without reading incestuous behavior into the daily lives and inner workings of the family. I don't want to believe that the incestuous overtones I garnered from the text are due to an "upper/middle-class" view of the poorest of America's citizens. I'm more apt to believe that the Beans are a clan without boundaries and with few principles. It is possible to be destitute, uneducated, unemployed, undernourished, and unvalued but still have a few basic human values that extend beyond the shelter and protection of the family . . . isn't it? The story is interesting. The pace is fitting. Although I never felt like putting the book down, I didn't plough through it either. I consider this a good read because it challenges the way that I think about love and familial affection. This is an excellent group read as well - the more perspectives the better. Have at it!
Rating:
Summary: Enduring
Review: The Beans of Egypt Maine stays with you for years. A sense of the book endures. You must read further. You may not want to but there is something so compelling, so real that you do. Details fade but the book endures, even haunts. All the praises you've read are earned. Perhaps not a beach book. Rather a serious book you'll think about for a long time. I think its art!
Rating:
Summary: Enduring
Review: The Beans of Egypt Maine stays with you for years. A sense of the book endures. You must read further. You may not want to but there is something so compelling, so real that you do. Details fade but the book endures, even haunts. All the praises you've read are earned. Perhaps not a beach book. Rather a serious book you'll think about for a long time. I think its art!
Rating:
Summary: I can't stop thinking about this book
Review: This book is unlike any other book I've read, though it does remind me of Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying." It is so completely believable-the imagery is excellent--not excessive--just enough to create an image that you can feel with all your senses. The story unfolds in such an unexpected way...I couldn't put it down, and when I finished it, I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: dreadful!!
Review: this book will put you under in minutes. Its lacking in storyline and tries desperately to hide its lack of content under shrouds of style that is sorely lacking as well. Not worth the used price!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, disturbing, moody - brilliant!
Review: This is not a novel for those looking for a simple, pre-digested read with a typical setting-action-climax structure. This is a literary novel - rife with atmosphere, amazing imagery and allegory - and well worth the extra brain-cell workout it might take to discover all the nuances. Even without the analytical approach, you'll enjoy it as a fresh and unsettling picture of poor poor poor life in America - it's a window to another world.
Rating: 
Summary: I was wrong
Review: This was a hard book to read, because the subject matter is unpleasant. The Beans are those people whose children cannot behave while at the grocery store, and who are blind and deaf to the mayhem they create. They are the ones who drive junky old cars through your neighborhood at 11 PM on a weekday with the radio really loud. They are the ones who chew with their mouths open at the fast food joint. Not a pretty group, not a pretty book. There is a poem by Khalil Gibran about children, that goes something like: "They come through you, but they are not yours". Ms. Chute should have realized that this could also be applied to novels. She could have saved herself the trouble of inserting some commentary in the "new and improved" finished version. I would have given the book more stars if Ms. Chute had refrained from telling me how wrong I was in my reading of the novel. My consolation is that I was not alone in my mistakes. Apparently, lots of people have approached Ms. Chute with the same errors I have made. These misunderstandings have incensed Ms. Chute so much that she's been compelled to clarify her meaning for us all. Too bad of a wasted time, because of course I like my reading of the book much better. This is the beauty of literature, this is what makes a book unique for each one. If someone else were doing the reading for us, it wouldn't be as much fun. So, my advice is to pick up a copy of the "unfinished" version instead, and save yourself the nagging postscript.
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