In addition to God's Little Acre, the book for which Caldwell is best known is Tobacco Road (1932). A cruder, more brutal novel, Tobacco Road is nevertheless a highly effective portrayal of the degradation caused by poverty. The Jeeter Lesters have been reduced to animal behavior by their surroundings and circumstances. Foremost in their minds is their constant hunger, which rules their daily existence. Caldwell shows that the Lesters are also emotionally starved: When Jeeter's disfigured daughter Ellie May tries to entice her brother-in-law Lov Bensey, her seductive attempts are pathetic because they illustrate her deep need for affection, a need shared by all of these alienated characters. The book attacks the society that allows these conditions to exist with a combination of comedy and horror.

Less well known is Caldwell's fifth novel, Journeyman (1935). Set in the wasteland of Rocky Comfort, Georgia, this book satirizes the fraudulent...