CAROLYN CHUTE AUTHOR OF THE BEANS OF EGYPT MAINE Merry Men ADVINEE CODY NOT FOR In her novels, Carolyn Chute (right) always has shown great affection toward Maine's rural people and anger at a culture that allows bottomless, inescapable poverty. But she has tempered her fury in "Merry Men" with empathy and tenderness. - O POOR PEOPLE RICHLY PORTRAYED In her new novel Carolyn ing the mail. National book tours and the Chute "has fought against public readings are still days or weeks Chute again looks to Egypt, this stereotype of being away. Maine, but portrays its people Chute, born in Portland and raised in some sort of mountain Cape Elizabeth, seems reluctant to relen- more broadly than before. woman," a friend of hers quish the privacy, and the control, of her years outside the spotlight. Since "Letour- By GREG GADBERRY says. "It's very painful to neau's Used Auto Parts," Chute has divided Staff Writer her." her time between teaching and writing. Last year she taught at Hollins College in Virginia and at the University of Maine at eople imagine things all the Fort Kent. P time. They sit back in their patient and meticulous process of imagin- chairs and see that beach in ing that has become the foundation of Arranging an interview with her required Hawaii, that bright-red Ferrari, her style. messages to her publisher in New York, that winning lottery ticket. "The writing process is, for me, like being who relayed the request. Her house at in a meditative state," says Chute. "You Parsonsfield has a telephone, but she only Carolyn Chute imagines things, too. She want to work into this meditative state plugs it in at certain times. sees a town called Egypt, Maine, with without falling asleep." Chute picked a pizza restaurant near her hundreds of people and dogs and cats - all Chute sits back in a booth of the home as the site. Every time she has a of whom she knows by name. For hours she Kezar Falls House of Pizza, a grin spanning reporter or film crew to her home, she says sits, scratching out notes, imagining the her broad face. It is a few weeks prior to the with a laugh, she feels she has to clean the color of peoples' eyes, witnessing the vol- publishing of "Merry Men" and she is canic eruption of arguments. relaxed, drinking chocolate milk and read- Please see CHUTE, Page 2E During the 1980s, her imagining resulted in national fame and two vivid and uncon- Chute, here ventional novels - 1985's "The Beans of giving a Egypt, Maine" and 1988's "Letourneau's reading Used Auto Parts." from Chute's longest and most ambitious book "Merry yet - "Merry Men" - has just been Men" at the published. For Chute, "Merry Men" also Mall Plaza marks a dramatic return to the celebrity Bookland in and attention that captured her after South the publishing of "Beans" nine years ago. Portland: At 712 pages, "Merry Men" is three times Nine years the length of her two previous books. It has after so many characters that her editor jokingly publishing named it "War and Peace in a Small "Beans," a New England Town." Despite its greater return to length and some changes in style, "Merry celebrity. Men" shares much with its widely respected predecessors. Once again, Chute has mined a single, fictional Maine town for her story. To conjure up that town, she again used a slow, Staff photo by John Ewing CHUTE Continued from Page 1E place up from top to bottom. THERE USED TO BE lots of re- porters. With the publishing of "The Beans of Egypt, Maine," Chute rose instantly from obscure Maine writer to author of national stature. Success bought 17 acres of Parsonsfield land, built a home on it and helped her and her husband, Michael Chute, escape nagging poverty. But some stories brought unwanted attention, treating Chute more like a character from her novels rather than an intelligent, creative artist. Much was made of her plain, simple clothing and her home with an outhouse. Staff photo by John Ewing "She has fought against this stere- Carolyn Chute reads from her new book at Bookland. She speaks of her characters - otype of being some sort of mountain even the nastiest and most violent - with love and understanding. woman," says Dianne Benedict, a short-story writer and friend of "Merry Men." The book spans not only Lloyd's READINGS Chute's. "It's very painful to her." "I wish I didn't do that," Chute life, but reaches back a century to his Chute may have been annoyed by says, of her habit of creating so many family's roots in Egypt, then sprints the articles, but she hasn't changed characters. "But I can't just kick forward to predict a sometimes Carolyn Chute will read from her style. For her interview, she somebody out because it feels frightening future. her new novel, "Merry Men," at dresses like a Mainer, not a cele- crowded." Chute's writing always has shown these Maine bookstores. brity. A dark scarf covers her brown Some characters disappear or are great affection toward Maine's rural Bookland will be making a $2 hair, a blue sweater and long blended together. "One character, people and anger at a culture that donation to the Maine Writers skirt keeps the persistent chill from when I am finished, probably started allows bottomless, inescapable and Publishers Alliance for her stocky frame. Although she will as four or five," she says. poverty. But she has tempered every copy of Chute's book sold turn 47 this year, she looks 10 years In early drafts, Chute says, she often writes without traditional her fury in "Merry Men" with during her appearances: younger. Friends describe her as a genuine, punctuation. Words are linked empathy and tenderness. Friday: Bookland in downtown warm person. She laughs easily and together only with ellipses. That Not all poor people are violent, Portland, noon. Bookland in often, gestures with her hands as if free-spirited flow, seen in a section Chute says. She hopes that message Brunswick, 7 p.m. grasping for ideas from the air. from "Merry Men" below, endures comes through more clearly in her Saturday: Bookland, North new book than it did in "The Beans She talks affectionately about her even in the final work. Windham, 11 a.m.; Bookland, house, still equipped with an out- of Egypt, Maine." She thinks she failed in "Beans" Mall Plaza, South Portland, house, the pleasure of small-town life She is sitting now in the cool near-darkness looking out at the by not explaining better that the 2:30 p.m. and her marriage to Michael, her longtime friend and adviser for poor, as well as the rich, have joy and Jan. 17: Upper Story Bookstore, road and at the sky, sky that takes humor in their lives. Springvale, 4:30 p.m. her writing. up the windows. Six-over-six panes. Yet through the laughs, Chute Sashed-open white cotton curtains. "I feel satisfied with my second Jan. 22: Waldenbooks, Maine speaks with great passion of her Sky is ivory and smokey blue-black. and third book," she says. "My first Mall, South Portland, 1:30 p.m. writing. Chute can describe, with A breath-taking sky. Clouds that are book, I just didn't feel it was Jan. 23: Harbour Books, finished." precision, scenes and storylines she discolored boulders hanging by Yarmouth, 12:30 p.m. developed more than a decade some reverse gravity, some trick, Finishing a book - welding the ago. She speaks of her characters some revised natural law. Some many characters and anecdotes into even the nastiest and most violent might be moved or spirited by this a unified whole - is the slowest, most difficult and scariest 9 p.m. on NBC stations. with love and understanding. sight. How it ripples sinuously through the aged glass! This dying experience in her writing, Chute Despite all that, Chute is unsure says. She likens it to watching a about the future. CHUTE SPENDS YEARS with her day. How the roofs of East Egypt characters, getting to know them. horde down over the great bank, photograph slowly develop in a bath "Next year (1994), I've got no For "Merry Men," that work began roofs rusted pinkish, some new and of chemicals. income as far as I know," she says. in 1988. She took an advance of about silver, some shingled black. And the "This book was so big, a sprawl, I Her early success put unwanted $100,000 from Harcourt Brace and river, black. And the river, silver. wasn't sure there was a story. My pressure on Chute. She remembers Co. that allowed her to survive husband said, 'Carolyn, you said the the poverty she endured before "The and write for several years. same thing about the other ones and Beans of Egypt, Maine." THE INSPIRATION for "Merry "I live pretty lean," she says. "I they turned out.'' Men" was a short poem Chute had "Poor was lawful," she says. really had to budget." Only through many rewrites and For many writers, a book begins written during the 1970s. It featured "Awful. I can't stand to go back to rethinkings does the central story with a story. With Chute, a book two men, one a poor farmer, the that again." appear. other a man who had lost his begins with the wisp of a character. "I'm constantly taking things out Corlies "Cork" Smith, Chute's livelihood on the land. Images of people - their hair color, and then putting them back in," she longtime editor, said Harcourt Brace walking style, background - appear Chute wanted her novel, like the says. will certainly offer her a new book in Chute's mind and are saved in poem, to explore how rural people Chute, ever the rewriter, would contract, regardless of how "Merry handwritten notes. confront the persistent intrusions of have liked more time for "Merry Men" is received. Sometimes, visions come quickly modern life. Men," too. "I would have liked to He's convinced the results will be and easily, she says. Other times "Merry Men" follows the life of take another year," she says. "But positive. Smith, who edited all three they are fickle. Lloyd, a man who grows up in was already over my deadline." of Chute's novels, says "Merry Men" "You have to make a commitment modern Egypt, Maine. He and some is her most mature and polished to just sit there," she says. of his neighbors resist the tempta- AFTER YEARS in the attic, Chute work to date. During the early months of writing tions of office jobs in favor of again is caught up in the star-mak- "Merry Men," Chute says, she spent farming, woods work and other rural Chute already has begun work on ing machine. four hours a day at work. As the piles employment. There was a trip to Hollywood to a new novel, though she says little of character studies sprouted and But they find themselves con- discuss a movie version of "Beans." about it. It is almost certain, grew in her attic office, Chute fronted by the loss of farms and Now,there's a national book tour however, that she is already imagin- stretched her working day to eight income and squeezed by new, rich to promote "Merry Men." A film ing Egypt, Maine again. Chute has and then 12 hours. Maine immigrants. Lloyd responds crew from the NBC news-magazine no urge to leave the place. Imagining a whole town means with great humor and Robin Hood- show, "Now," was in Maine last week "We write about what matters to imagining people - lots of them. like tricks on the authorities and the to profile her. The story tentatively is us, and place matters to me," she Her editors estimate there are 400 in rich encroachers. scheduled to run on Jan. 19 at says.