Go With Me by Castle Freeman, Jr.

"Why?" she asked. "Why should I sit down? You're telling me you can't do anything. You're telling me I have to wait till he does something, till he gets to me, kills me, before you can do anything."

"You could put it that way, I guess," the sheriff said.

"How would you put it?"

"That way."
- Castle Freeman, Jr., Go With Me

The first chapter of this book made me angry. In a tiny Vermont logging community, Lillian has been menaced by a stalker, the local tough guy. When she goes to the sheriff, he seems to be clueless as to how he could be of help. Infuriating! From this early exchange in the book quoted above, I was thinking that it was set in the 1940s or 1950s, but no, the story occurred following 9-11, so in the 21st Century!

Frustrated, Lillian heads to a defunct chair factory, where a group of older men hold court, starting with coffee in the morning and moving on to beer in the afternoon. In a small community where everyone knows everything, these men know more than most. They hook Lillian up with a brawny young man, described as smarter than a horse but not smarter than a tractor, and a wily old man with a limp. 

Heading off in a pickup truck, Lillian and the two men start hunting for her tormentor in a journey that resembles the labors of Hercules. The chapters of the book alternate between their trials and the conversation of the men at the chair factory, who like a chorus in ancient Greek theatre fill the reader in on the background of all the characters and what brought them together.

I literally read this book in one sitting, not so much because it is a short novel, but because the first scenes between Lillian and the sheriff angered me and I wanted to know how it would all turn out. The rapid fire dialog and constant action kept me engaged. The switching between the hunt for the stalker and the often comic repartee in the office of the chair factory allowed the suspense to build without overloading the reader with tension. 

I think this book was on my bookshelf due to a recommendation by a colleague, but I had been hesitant to start it knowing the topic and being afraid of triggers. I needn't have worried, because while Freeman's well-paced storytelling takes us to the dark corners of humanity, it makes sure we are in a company of heroes.

All of Castle Freeman's books are set in rural Vermont, which he says is "a source of unique and undiminishing interest." I think I will need to check out his other books.

My only complaint with the book is how it is typeset. I read the 2008 paperback published by Harper Perennial. About 10% of the pages had bad kerning, sometimes so bad it was difficult to read, with the occasional instance of negative kerning so that letters were on top of each other. Here is an example of a sentence I had difficulty parsing:

He strad dled Na teas Na te lay be s i de the fire.

Assuming that there was only one printing of this book, I would suspect the typesetting is the same in all versions. Too bad, since this is such a good read.