Set during the depression in the depleted farmlands surrounding Augusta, Georgia, "Tobacco Road" was first published in 1932. It is the story of the Lesters, a family of white sharecroppers so destitute that most of their creditors have given up on them. Debased by poverty to an elemental state of ignorance and selfishness, the Lesters are preoccupied by their hunger, sexual longings, and fear that they will some day descend to a lower rung on the social ladder than the black families that live near them.
This is very powerful writing, extremely funny in places, but exceptional writing; funny because Jeeter Lester and his family are so ignorant they have fallen off the scale that most would consider human and are perpetually childlike - and children can be very funny, although the cause 's of the humourous utterances and behaviours are seldom funny in themselves . This is a world where twelve year old daughters are married off, grandparents are starved and in one case run over and left to die in the front yard .
From the rear cover:
An original, mature approach to people who ignore the civilization that contains them as completely as it ignores them - The Nation.
The really scary part is that this isn't a satire, it is a snap shot of how many lived and probably do today but with television.
This is an outstanding book.
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