“There’s a lot of groupthink, there’s a lot of programming that’s really harmful to the women of the church - and the men.”īack in Peaches, as Pastor Vern’s unholy plans to summon rain take shape, Lacey grows to question her faith with the assistance of the Diviners, the town’s female-run phone-sex operation, which becomes a haven for Lacey as her situation grows more desperate. “The church really takes some of my issues with the more traditional churches to an extreme,” she says. Though Bieker took quickly to the structure and safety of her grandparents’ religion, she eventually found it difficult to square her political views with the church.
“I have a different view of her than I did maybe at 18 when I was just full of hot anger and confusion, and everything seemed more black and white.” “The older I’ve gotten, the more my view of my mother shifts, and I have more compassion for her,” says Bieker, whose contact with her mother is mostly over the phone. And yet, despite being distressing at times, the book leaves room for light and a twisted sort of humor - even as Peaches spirals into darkness. “I always felt curious about those spaces.” Bieker’s debut novel, “ Godshot,” offers a heightened but still empathetic portrait of those who live and work in her fictional Central Valley town, Peaches.ĭepicting the ravages of economic disaster and the cruelty desperate people will accept in return for promises of a better life, “Godshot” is about patriarchy, extremist religion and their result, misogyny and sexual violence. “If you drive even a little bit outside of Fresno you know that’s where the farmers have their crops, and that’s where the food is coming from,” says writer Chelsea Bieker.
Who survives in such a parched landscape? What must their lives be like?
Mile after seemingly desolate mile, freeway exits to small towns like Kettleman City, Lost Hills and Buttonwillow point toward a rural way of life beyond rest stop clusters of gas stations and fast food options. For those living near California’s metropolitan poles of Los Angeles and San Francisco, a road trip through the state’s Central Valley reveals an unfamiliar world.Īmid sprawling orchards and windswept pastureland, roadside billboards issue water demands to farmers.
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