Not to Be Confused With Love

While sexism is still alive and kicking, this novel takes us back to the "Me Decade" (perhaps we should have called it the "He Decade"?) of the 1970s, specifically, 1976. Odessa, Texas is the setting; the oilfields and the stench and the omnipresent compression of white male privilege. The story opens with a brutal rape and is told from the perspective of five female characters, some adult, some not. The grit and grime of West Texas is palpable, and you wonder just how bleak anyone's circumstances were that they would choose this place to stop en route to somewhere better. Abject racism and misogyny reign, bone-deep and no apologies necessary. If you lived through that time, you will remember how it was. The characters will remind you of someone you knew, or someone you were.