Maine author Betty Culley has lived the effects of a landfill on a small rural community. A commercial landfill situated less than five miles from her home collapsed in 1989. Garbage that had covered 12.5 acres was, within moments, spread across 25 acres. The land surrounding that site still is a landfill (now operating on 158 of their 1,267 acres) and it now supplies waste capacity for towns and businesses all throughout New England and beyond. It also provides jobs and contributes to the community, sponsoring school sporting events and more. Given her experiences, this Maine writer wanted to paint a realistic picture of what it’s like for kids in a small town where a large, commercial landfill is situated.
In Landslide, the main character, ten year old Nathan Savage, lives right across the road from a landfill, where the mountain of garbage is reaching 90 feet. This landfill provides employment for Nathan’s dad, who works on top of the heap driving the huge compactor that compresses the garbage. The landfill also sponsors Nathan’s hockey team. At the same time, Nathan’s mom closes her curtains during daylight hours and chooses to work at night when the garbage trucks are not rumbling past the house. She works at home stitching shoes for a local shoe shop. The landfill is on land her own parents once farmed, and where she grew up playing in the fields and listening to birds sing.
Nathan, the book’s narrator, has an extraordinary ability to perceive motion. Per Betty, this ability “is not a documented talent. It’s something I made up. Maybe a bit of magical realism, but also, there’s the suggestion that when you pay close attention to the world around you, you may notice things other people don’t. I wanted to have kids realize that noticing the natural world can be its own gift. You might observe what others might not notice because you’re paying attention.”
The downside of living near a landfill is portrayed honestly, including the pervasive odor, the noise of truck traffic and the contamination of a local stream on a organic dairy farm that Nathan loves to visit. Betty carried out extensive research on the solid waste industry, created sympathetic characters and provided an even handed portrayal of the economic benefits of the landfill. Nathan’s quirky friend, Wilder Bacon, learns about landfills and “garbology” as Nathan observes subtle movements and shifting on the hill. Nathan explains to Wilder that a landslide is inevitable and how he worries that his dad might be hurt or even killed in the collapse.
Betty became interested in telling Nathan’s story in part because the landfill that collapsed in 1989 is now the site of the only commercial landfill operation in Maine and is owned by the largest trash management company in the world. It’s also where she brings her own trash. As she wrote Nathan’s story, Betty researched the history of trash management in her own town. “I live on 85 acres in a small town in Maine. Our town used to have an open pit dump where the trash was burnt when it got full.” When open pit dumps were banned, engineered landfills with leachate collection systems became the norm. She learned that a few, like the one near Betty’s home, take special waste such as oily debris and forever chemicals.
Regarding the family that lives across from her local landfill, Betty reports, “They’re in their 80s and still live there, where their parents farmed, right across from the entrance to the landfill and they still have cows. Their persistence and steadfastness was a great part of my inspiration.” Betty strove to write an even handed story because she wanted to answer the question, “How do we live with these things?”
“I also have seen how the waste management industry has changed,” she says. Betty sees that efforts are being made to improve landfill safety as well as urging people to reuse, recycle and reduce reliance on single use products.
In many ways, Landslide parallels community efforts nowadays to deal with giant corporations creating data centers which can create problems such as drought due to water usage, or excessive energy bills.
Betty, who writes realistic young adult and middle grade novels and is a keen observer of adolescent and young adult perspectives, has been writing since she was a little girl. She says, “I always wanted to publish a book but I didn’t have a lot of self-confidence so I didn’t share my writing for a long time. Then I joined a writers’ group and started sharing my writing and learned more about the publishing world and the process of querying agents.” That changed her perspective and approach. “I couldn’t be shy about my writing anymore. It really is a dream come true to have my words out in the world.”
Betty’s interest in writing is definitely coupled with her interest in learning, researching and realism. Once she decided to portray Nathan’s mother as a shoemaker she researched the Maine shoemaking industry. “I met a woman who was a hand sewer and she showed me her tools. She laid out her tools and showed me her thread and how she taped her hands.” Betty adds, “Shoe shops were very big in Maine at one time and there is still hand sewing being done here.”
Per Betty, Nathan’s mother chooses to work at night and keep the drapes drawn against the landfill, “as a survival mechanism. I think it was the idea that there was something beyond her control out there. It changed her beautiful view and peaceful quiet. Drawing closed the curtains and working at night is her way of trying to deal with it. Not to see it, not to hear it, not to smell it, if she can.”
The message here goes beyond Natham’s mom to the ways we all try to cope. “Whether it’s healthy or if it works, it’s all she can do. On this earth we all try to create beauty in our lives but there are things beyond our control, like a big building might be built near us or a highway might be rerouted, changing our view. That’s what happened to Nathan’s mom.”
At one point, Nathan sees his mom transplanting her perennials from the front yard to the backyard and he helps her, realizing it’s one of her ways of coping while living with the landfill.
There is tremendous reality and depth of life and character in this novel. Betty says this comes about almost magically. “The way I write, I’m not really a plotter. I’m kind of a pantser and when I write sometimes characters appear and there they are. It can feel like the muse is at work, kind of a magical thing. That’s what happened with Wilder. Having Wilder in the story was fun, especially because friendship is an important part of the book.”
“In all my novels that have social issues—Three Things I Know Are True has gun violence issues in it—I don’t really take sides. Instead, I strive to show the truth as best I can. It’s not about this is right and this is wrong. That’s not how I view writing. I try to find a voice and see what the character tells me.”
To assure that she was giving readers a well-rounded view of small communities and their landfills, Betty says she “talked to a landfill compactor operator, toured the giant state run landfill at Juniper Ridge, north of Bangor and stood on the working face watching the trucks come in.” She says everyone on all sides of the solid waste issue appear to share the same sentiment, “Garbage has to go somewhere.” So Betty “tried to look at the whole picture and how this industry affected one boy’s life and where he lives and what happens to him, his family, his friends, and his community.”
Nathan is a character who stays with readers long after we close the last page of the novel. A memorable image is of Nathan looking down at his house from atop a nearby hill as the landfill expansion begins and planning to plant more crabapple trees. That leaves readers wondering what Nathan might do next. Betty says, “I do have my own crabapple orchard with close to 20 crabapple trees. Some of them grow apples big enough to eat. Others have hard berries that birds love . I planted the orchard simply for its blooms, its beauty.”
There’s a big takeaway in this novel, one that could make it a valuable all-community read for teachers and librarians who want to share the love of reading in their schools and communities. Betty describes that takeaway as “In life, sometimes there are big challenges we have to face, like what Nathan faced. Challenges that are right in front of you that don’t have easy answers and you have to rely on yourself and other people to find your way. And you can still find the beauty in your life.”
Betty had some specific advice for readers of all ages:
For the teachers and librarians – “The nature and volume of our garbage has dramatically changed and the generation coming up is going to have some real challenges. I hope that we can give students the tools for how to think about these things and learn how to help protect the environment. Maybe some of them will come up with ideas that are life changing for all of us.”
For students — “I’ve met with students and I’ve heard some of them talk about their concerns for the earth and the environment. Tell them I believe in them and I have faith in them to help things move forward. They’re thoughtful and they’re caring and I appreciate that. “
For more of Betty’s novels, you can visit her website: Betty Culley – Author of Young Adult & Middle Grade Novels Betty Culley | Author
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