Mill Town

Starred review from June 8, 2020
In this powerful investigative memoir, book critic Arsenault examines her relationship with Mexico, Maine, her now-downtrodden hometown. In 2009, Arsenault returned there from Connecticut after her grandfather died; while in this town (pop. 2,600) that owes its existence to a nearby 118-year-old paper mill, she decided to resume research on the Arsenault family’s French-Canadian lineage. She quickly learns of the environmental havoc wrought by the mill, which earned Mexico the nickname of “Cancer Alley,” and uncovers the many obituaries citing people who “died after a battle with cancer” believed to be caused by ash emitted by the mill (dubbed “mill snow”) that also crept into her family’s home. From there, Arsenault embarks on a decade-long probe into the environmental abuses of a company that supported her family for three generations. “The legacies powerful men construct almost always emerge from the debris of other people’s lives,” she writes, yet her inquiry only deepened her bond with Mexico (“We can and probably should go back to confront what made us leave, what made us fall in and out of love with the places that create us, or to see what we left behind”). Arsenault paints a soul-crushing portrait of a place that’s suffered “the smell of death and suffering” almost since its creation. This moving and insightful memoir reminds readers that returning home—“the heart of human identity”—is capable of causing great joy and profound disappointment.

Starred review from June 15, 2020
Arsenault reflects on her serene hometown and the cloaked environmental corruption plaguing it. The author, a National Books Critics Circle board member and book review editor at Orion, grew up in Mexico, Maine, a small town fortified by the Androscoggin River. She writes poignantly of growing up in a large nuclear family surrounded by the town's dense forestlands. Her father and grandfather worked at the local paper mill, an entity that economically grounded the town and employed a large percentage of its residents, many of whom remained blind to the ever changing world around them. "Monumental philosophical ideas," writes Arsenault, "were surfacing across America--feminism, environmentalism--however, there were no movements in Mexico but for people walking across the mill's footbridge to work." Underneath Mexico's serene veneer festered a secret that the author began to investigate with steely determination in 2009. While visiting to attend a funeral, Arsenault dug into the town's history and the Arsenault family tree, both of which were riddled with cancer deaths. Expanding her research outward, she scoured town documents and interviewed family, childhood friends, and surviving townspeople to uncover proof that Mexico and the surrounding area had been dubbed "cancer valley," with generations of families suffering terminal illnesses. Arsenault disturbingly chronicles how the paper mill released carcinogenic chemicals into the atmosphere and dumped them at the edge of the river, and she shows how the malfeasance was buried in bureaucratic red tape, EPA coverups, and outright lies even as Mexico continued to suffer a "never-ending loop of obituaries." In this masterful debut, the author creates a crisp, eloquent hybrid of atmospheric memoir and searing expos�. She writes urgently about the dire effects the mill's toxic legacy had on Mexico's residents and the area's ecology while evocatively mining the emotional landscape of caretaking for aging parents and rediscovering the roots of her childhood. Bittersweet memories and a long-buried atrocity combine for a heartfelt, unflinching, striking narrative combination.

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August 1, 2020

Asenault's compelling debut asks readers to consider how relationships between humans and nature impact our bodies and the environment. In her hometown of Mexico, ME, is a paper mill that employed many of the community's residents, including three generations of her family. Although the mill brought economic stability to the area, it wreaked havoc on the surrounding lands and waters. Owing to the high number of cancers and rare physical ailments, the town was dubbed "Cancer Valley." In this powerful memoir, Arsenault dredges up the town's history, interviews locals and family members, and pores over environmental reports to present the multifaceted issues facing the town, including a diminished working class, environmental destruction, and corporate corruption and greed. Included are stories about her father going on strike twice, and the negotiations that resulted. She also explores the mill for herself in order to begin learning about what life was like for machinists. Her research rounds out the story of her family, who like many families in the area, had lives intertwined with the mill and are now facing a reckoning. VERDICT This story will resonate with readers grappling with similar crises in their hometowns and is a recommended addition to memoir collections.--Mattie Cook, Flat River Community Lib., MI

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2020
Arsenault grew up in small, close-knit Mexico, Maine, graduated high school, and moved several states away to attend college. After marriage, she traveled the world, and returned to visit a hometown vastly changed, hollowed out by the same forces that have laid waste to small towns across America. The toxic chemicals and waste produced by the town's paper mill and the abysmal cancer rates suggest correlation, but officials disagree. Poland Spring water is bottled in a nearby town; Arsenault tries to investigate parent company Nestl�, once again butting against official denials of damage. Her initial organizing efforts are embraced by locals, until suddenly the townsfolk change their attitude. Her years away have marked her an outsider, and she is treated with suspicion. Arsenault's driving curiosity is matched by a stunning vocabulary (catkin and debouche are two such delights). Readers who can appreciate the complexities of loving and hating their birthplace, and who understand that going home is like a "dialogue between two people in a deep and complicated relationship," will find this memoir well worth the effort.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)