Book review: Grinnell College professor's novel takes aim at Big Ag
As the saying goes, art imitates life. One could say Sandy Moffett’s entertaining and enlightening novel, "The Ghost of Craven Snuggs," has a whole lot of life to it.
Moffett, emeritus professor of theatre at Grinnell College, has taken aim at vertically integrated Big Ag like triple-ought buckshot on an Iowa pheasant.
The story begins when Craven Snuggs’ house and barn mysteriously burn to the ground. Just before he enters his barn to save his horses, Snuggs says prophetically, “You ain’t seen the last of me.” The flaming barn then collapses with Snuggs presumably still inside.
We segue to a series of missing portraits of the owners of multi-level livestock corporations – Hubert Wooten, James Schittman and Donald Birdseed. Two of the owners, Wooten and Schittman, are later found half-eaten in hog confinements they own with their portraits hanging nearby. Birdseed is discovered floating inside a bundle of garbage in a sewage lagoon.
Coincidence? Maybe not.
What really turns up the heat on the case is the governor’s missing portrait. He naturally believes he will follow the same fate.
With the governor commandeering the entire state’s law enforcement team for his personal protection, it falls on small-town sheriff Patrick Kavanaugh to solve the murders. Since his department is limited to a secretary and a pair of easily confused identical twins named Phil and Bill, Kavanaugh hires an unlikely trove of deputies, including Shawn Gallagher, former ag professor infamous for his demonstrations against Big Ag, including an appearance before a public hearing in a pig suit. Gallagher, incidentally, is the initial prime suspect in the murders.
Gallagher soon exonerates himself, though, as do the trophy-wife widows of the three corporate executives who seem more than happy to be shed of their husbands and inherit their money.
Still, the murders remain unresolved. As suspect after suspect is crossed off the pictures on Kavanaugh’s wall, the only remaining suspect is Snuggs’ ancient International pickup that seems to have appeared then disappeared at each crime scene.
Moffett’s criticism of corporate agriculture is laced with gut-wrenching humor. Those unfamiliar with Iowa’s ag policy will find the novel both entertaining and enlightening. Those who understand the DNR’s Master Matrix that evaluates animal confinements will cringe at how closely Moffett has come to his target. Those involved in vertically integrated agriculture might have an entirely different take on the book.
Michael Tidemann writes from Estherville. His Facebook page is Author Michael Tidemann.
'The Ghost of Craven Snuggs'
Sandy Moffett
Ice Cube Press
ISBN 9781948509398
$19.99
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Book review: Grinnell College professor's novel takes aim at Big Ag
