because i stopped to read this:

Still Paging Mr. Salinger
By CHARLES McGRATH


i found this after looking up what else mr mcgrath had written for the times (this piece is a couple of months old)

A Writer in a Living Novel
By CHARLES McGRATH
PARSONSFIELD, Me. — The novelist Carolyn Chute doesn’t have a working phone, a fax or a computer. She writes on a washtub-size electric typewriter that was probably state of the art in the ’70s. Ms. Chute (pronounced CHOOT) and her husband, Michael, live in a small compound at the end of an unpaved road in this rural Maine village near the New Hampshire border. There are stacks of old tires in the yard, a rusted bedstead, a pen full of Scottish terriers and an assortment of well-used vehicles. A bumper sticker on Mr. Chute’s pickup reads, “School Takes 13 Years Because That’s How Long It Takes to Break a Child’s Spirit.”

Mr. Chute, who looks like a 19th-century hunting guide, spends most of his time drawing and making sculptures in an unfinished, uninsulated building he calls the security office. He has a beard of ZZ Top proportions, wears checked shirts and round felt hats, and in Down East fashion frequently uses “wicked” as an adverb.

Ms. Chute, 61, a wry, direct and earthy woman who favors bandannas, peasant skirts and stout hiking boots, works in their home, which is guarded by a sign that reads: “Woa. Visitors Turn Back.” Neither building is heated, except by wood stove, or has hot water. The compound’s sole toilet is a tin-roofed outhouse.............

picture:

Erik Jacobs for The New York Times

Carolyn and Michael Chute at their home in Maine. Ms. Chute’s fourth book will be published on Friday.

(and i also found the following from 2002 in looking up MORE on the chutes Writing to Her Heart's Content By JOANNE LANNIN, Portland Press Herald Writer
..................

If any one incident served to radicalize Chute, it was the death in 1982 of their newborn son, Reuben. Chute blames his being stillborn on the fact that she and Michael had no health insurance. She says the hospital would not admit her during her early labor – even though the baby was a month overdue and she had a temperature of 104 degrees.

"Neighbors of mine with lower back pain and good insurance were admitted instantly to have their babies," she wrote in a letter to the Maine State Legislature's committee on banking and insurance in April 2001 when she testified about the need for universal health care. "My baby was struggling to be born. . . . They will let you in for quickie stuff. But not complicated costly stuff."...................)

sure i'm hungry, starving for ANY salinger news. there is NONE. i was curious to see what else mr mcgrath had written and i found the carolyn chute piece.

i read the beans of egypt maine a LONG time ago. i LOVED it. i was floored by it. it is by no means a pretty or nice story. but it's a story we pray doesn't happen yet we know happens all of the time. i read the beans long before i even dreamed of owning a computer. i had no idea what carolyn chute was all about (well in fairness i still don't know. i only know a BIT more about her and her life). i never got around to looking her up. just forgot about her and the beans. that's MY fault. i never should have forgotten. thank you mr mrgrath for reminding me about carolyn chute and what she is capable of writing. even though i don't think i'd be a fan of the second maine militia, i KNOW i'd sure love to sit down, have a steamin' cup o' joe and a nice long conversation with ms chute. i would LOVE to meet her. i'd love to tell her the beans was a very special book for me indeed. i'd like to thank her for writing and for being carolyn chute