The catalyst is that a teacher cuts a little boy's (Kaia) hair. People don't always know the various ways in which they are connected. Each person represents a part of the community as a whole from the small time thug hiding his guns under Ma Taffy's home to the school principal who sees herself is an integral part of the Augustown community but lives in the hills among the wealthy elements of society. This is a story where everyone is connected in threads both loose and strong in ways that they don't necessarily know or understand. Miller takes us through some familial tales to explain who Ma Taffy is and what she means to the community and the events about to ensue. Ma Taffy the blind/grizzled neighborhood 'grandmother' has a bad premonition that something big and bad is about to happen and so the story begins to unfold. Unfortunately, I've only read the book once so it is certain that I have missed much more than I have captured in this review.

This is one of those books that should be read more than once to capture the depth of meaning. Miller shows and doesn't tell in a beautiful, poetic light. Miller ostensibly a poet cum novelist brings an artistic bright light on what in less skilled hands would be pedestrian and heavy-handed. The story, the reverberations, the impact, the undercurrents, the culture, the resentment, the simmering anger, the privilege, the inequities all of these things and more are percolating in communities. What happens is only the face or the cover. He showcases that what happens (the event) is not the story. It is such a simple tale and yet so complex in the moods and emotions evoked.

There is very little doubt in my mind that Augustown is brilliant.

Augustown book