Pew by Catherine Lacey - 2 stars (Subdue)

[Joy D]

Pew by Catherine Lacey - 2* - My Review

In a small town in the American South, a young person is found sleeping on a church pew. A couple takes the youth home and offers a place to stay. When they ask questions, they are met with silence, so they decide to call the youth “Pew.” The town is a (so-called) Christian community that holds a (fictitious) “Forgiveness Festival” each year (more like a cult), and Pew has arrived during the week leading up to it.

This is an (intentionally) uncomfortable book. It focuses on the townspeople’s need to label Pew in terms of race, gender, and place of origin. The actions taken by the community are more selfish than kind. Pew is the narrator but tells the reader very little, keeping everything vague and distant. I appreciate the message but found it difficult to feel engaged. The style and structure just did not work well for me.