Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

Unsheltered is two stories, two families separated by a century but united by a house.  The post civil war story is based in reality.  Fictional character Thatcher Greenwood has moved with his extended family into a broken down house in Vineland, a real life Utopian community started in New Jersey by Charles Landis.  Greenwood's neighbor is also a real person, Mary Treat, who is a self taught naturalist who often corresponded with the likes of Darwin. Their friendship and a mutual respect for the ideas of evolution strain Greenwood's marriage and his job as a science teacher.  In the contemporary story, Willa Knox and her extended family are living in the same broken down house and slowly climbing down the ladder of success.  Educated and hard working, fate has dealt them more difficulties than they seen able to easily manage.  But it is this family that provides commentary on the current political atmosphere. Trump is never named but the identification couldn't be clearer - quote by quote.  The only positive feeling that one might glean from this novel is that we were able to overcome one miserable era in our history and should be able to do the same with this one.  Or maybe it's a political metaphor - if the house we live in is too broken down, it can leave us feeling unsheltered.