Author Carolyn Chute reads letters while her husband cleans her AK-47.
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As night fell, Michael Chute kindled a fire, and I sat down with Carolyn, who wore big boots and a blue bandanna to tie back her long kinky hair. Her last book, 2008's The School on Heart's Content Road, featured a militia movement that brought together conservatives, hippies, polygamists, secessionists, farmers and vegans. Over her jungle-camo jacket she had strung a bandolier that held what looked like the 7.62 mm rounds for her AK-47, the rifle she calls "my baby" because "it kicks just a little bit and has a deep sound." But the shell casings were tipped only with sharpened pencils. "The point being," the novelist explained, "that we should make our pencils our bullets."
Global Dispatch
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