Is The Hill a Novel of the Left or an Obituary for It?

"When she wants to convince Suzanna of this, to tell her why her mother doesn't deserve visitors, she drives her to the bank her mother was accused of robbing, points to a security guard, and tells her granddaughter, "You see that boy ... She sat right where I'm sitting and waited while her friends fucked up and killed him." That her grandmother means a previous guard, and not this living one, isn't immediately clear to Suzanna."

Suzanna has grown up in a hilltop prison where her mother has always lived, so they have never been alone, shared home-cooked meals, or seen each other in darkness. Their limited visits occur under harsh lights in a crowded visiting area with guards and other incarcerated people. Suzanna does not question the situation because no one provides answers. After overhearing strangers at a dentist’s office discussing her mother’s alleged bank robbery and revolutionary motives, Suzanna hears different explanations from her grandparents. Her grandfather frames the act as noble ideals taken too far, while her grandmother refuses forgiveness and reduces the crime to “what your mother did,” insisting the punishment is deserved. Her grandmother also recounts a guard being killed during the incident, shaping Suzanna’s understanding through indirect, confusing adult revelations.

Read at Vulture