The Gentrification of Rural Texas The Gillespie County Fair, the oldest fair in Texas, looms insistently over the shoulder of Marc Hess’s new novel. As rampant land development and tourist money begin to transform the old German farming community of Fredericksburg, two intermarried pioneer families lock in a life-and-death struggle over the sale of their homestead. Their vicious feud–in an … feud–in an otherwise harmonious and bucolic community–leads to the demise of two pioneer families and culminates in the triumph of one hard-headed, young girl.
This book delves into the clash of new wealth and ingrained poverty as rural Texas grapples with a changing world. In a short period of time, the town of Fredericksburg has morphed from a rock-rimmed farming community into the chic tourist destination that it is today. While the town itself has blossomed, this is the story about a family that destroys itself.
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The Gillespie County Fair is an interesting story of the demise of the old ways, customs and structure of a long standing way of traditional rural living. Conversely, the story is also about the rise of a new set of customs and beliefs that will now be structured into a completely new and different way of living. The characters are an ensemble of two intermarried families, thus tied to each other regardless of their feelings or convictions about the situation they live in every day. The tension is palpable yet subtle. I felt such a great sadness for all of these characters. Destroyed by forces beyond their control, which changes everything about everything forever. Honestly, it’s profoundly heartbreaking when you come to understand the ramifications for these families. The story is definitely contemplative and disheartening.
If you’ve traveled the small towns of Texas, you may have noticed what I refer to as their “kitschification”–the marketing of a carefully crafted version of “history” to attract the tourist trade. This book delves into the local conflicts inherent in that process, with a story driven also by some pretty intense family drama. Good characters, good story, worthy theme.
We’re in Texas where the townspeople are set in their ways. Everyone knows everyone’s business, and they are all up in it. The author introduced many characters from the start, which is hard for a reader to keep track of who is who. The main character is Carel, but towards the end of the book, the focus is put more in his daughter Willow. Carel has big dreams of being rich, but with poorly executed plans that depend on the borrowing of more and more money. Everyone in town is connected in some way, which is the way of small towns. They struggle to stay relevant in an ever-changing world.
I guess I was expecting more of the fair to be involved considering the title and blurb. Everyone attended it towards the end of the book, but the details were vague at best. There were so many characters and then weird situations that didn’t necessarily seem connected. It was a lot to keep track of, and then towards the last few chapters of the book, the author seemed to catch a thread of a cohesive storyline and went with that. Some of the writing I struggled over because the author was trying to convey local dialect and such, for example, this sentence: “Dat be mein own fault dat sat dat curse down on yer chest, my son.” It just made it a bit of an extra struggle to follow along.
I had high hopes for this book but feel it was a letdown.
I’ll start by saying that the characters seemed to be well-developed, but there were too many characters for the story line. For example, I loved Willow’s snarky characteristics and her “never back down” attitude, but she should have had a much more active role in this story. I expected a lot more about the fair when in reality, I almost glossed right over it. Max was introduced way too late into the story. I felt like this book was the sequel to a much earlier novel where we were already used to all of the characters in the book, and the author was reintroducing them into this new story about their lives. I didn’t really feel much of a connection to the story while reading it either, which very well could have been that the book is not one I would normally read. One thing I did enjoy is how well you could really see the author’s experience with living in a small town. Coming from a small town myself, it was spot on with how gossip occurs and families are connected.
The Gillespie County Fair is an interesting story of the demise of the old ways, customs and structure of a long standing way of traditional rural living. Conversely, the story is also about the rise of a new set of customs and beliefs that will now be structured into a completely new and different way of living. The characters are an ensemble of two intermarried families, thus tied to each other regardless of their feelings or convictions about the situation they live in every day. The tension is palpable yet subtle. I felt such a great sadness for all of these characters. Destroyed by forces beyond their control, which changes everything about everything forever. Honestly, it’s profoundly heartbreaking when you come to understand the ramifications for these families. The story is definitely contemplative and disheartening.