Clarion Ledger reporter Sarah Fowler tells the story of Clara Daniels in heart-wrenching detail. Daniels, a Mississippi woman unable to afford to hook her mobile home up to utilities, is meant to personify America’s rural poor. But the author presents her whole for the reader, living the idea that a single person’s story has value separate from any larger trend it may illuminate.
And it’s beautifully done. Here’s my favorite line:
The cows are not hers. They eat every day. Clara does not.