March 2, 2015

Turns Out Brilliant Writing Runs in Karen Russell’s Family

Evidence: Her brother Kent’s amazing new collection of nonfiction.


I Am Sorry to Think I Have Raised a Timid Son
By Kent Russell
KNOPF

Halfway through his engrossing book of essays and reportage, I realized Kent Russell was the kid brother of Swamplandia author Karen Russell, and then it all made sense: the hilariously dysfunctional Florida family. The language you can chew on. Russell’s characters shoal along walls or “move about like a violent decision.” His own small hands are “furtive-looking” and his feet are “a hindrance, dry-land flippers.” When he’s not psychoanalyzing friends and relations (or himself), he’s off communing with various lunatics. He attends a mass gathering of Juggalos (the mostly poor, white, and highly perverse followers of the band Insane Clown Posse). He tracks down a legendary hockey enforcer—Russell is obsessed with the sport—in Nova Scotia. He powwows with guys who dose themselves with snake venom or squat near-deserted islands. All you need do is grip your armrests and live vicariously.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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