Review of The Trailer Park Rules by Michelle Teheux

The Trailer Park Rules
by Michelle Teheux
 
review by Julie Carpenter






​For many people, the lives of the poor are opaque. Even those who have experienced poverty or lived around the edges of it, often don’t look back if they manage to escape. Fear keeps only one eye open so the middle class and rich see only the “poor choices” made by those who can’t “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and not the system that could easily subsume almost anyone—no matter how much they have in the bank—in a moment. The reality is too frightening to take in, so we look the other way. We blame. We assure ourselves that this could never happen to us.

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Teheux takes on the system by giving readers a glimpse into the lives of some people who are surviving on the edges of capitalism and trying to find a foothold or falling into despair. From Jonesy, a newspaper reporter whose nearly 24-hour days have very little financial payback, to a young family that loses its way due to pregnancy and medical bills, to a young woman who makes her money by having a sugar daddy, these are people who are struggling to survive, both abhorring the system and trying to find a way in.

The characters each get their own story arcs as the trailer park is sold, rents are jacked, and everyone in it must either find the money to remain or land somewhere else.

One of the real beauties of this novel is the way that the characters’ relationship to the system that traps them is portrayed. For instance, Nancy, the manager of the trailer park, who desperately tries to follow all the rules, even when it means harming those around her, finds that her subservience buys her nothing. There is no acquiescence that guarantees survival.

There is no blame in this book. No moralizing about choice. Yes, some of the characters make mistakes. Who doesn’t?  And that’s the point. We’re all in this together. 

There are funny scenes, sweet scenes, scenes of violence—in other words, life and humanity— to be found in Loire Mobile Home Park (don’t pronounce it like an elite! It’s Lori!), but in the long run we see people trying to maintain their dignity and humanity in the face of unlikely odds. 

And when you read this book, the tables turn. How many billionaires could survive these circumstances? How many kids who grew up in middle class homes? When you see people, really see them, struggling through the mire of impossible situations, you realize the people we shun are often the most inventive, the toughest, and the smartest people in our society.
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Hats off to Teheux for this terrific book! If you don’t have it, Sacred Chickens gives it our highest recommendation. You can also find this author on Substack at Untrickled by Michelle Teheux—one of my favorite follows.