Mill Town

In "Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains," Kerri Arsenault embarks on a deeply personal investigation into her hometown of Mexico, Maine, a place shaped for over a century by the rhythms and demands of a paper mill. This book explores how the mill, a source of livelihood for generations, including Arsenault's own family, also left a profound and unsettling legacy on the community and its environment. As Arsenault sifts through family history, local narratives, and scientific reports, she uncovers the complex interplay between economic survival, environmental degradation, and the quiet toll on human health that earned the area the moniker "Cancer Valley."

Blending memoir, investigative journalism, and cultural criticism, Arsenault's narrative confronts the difficult truths of a working-class town grappling with corporate decisions and governmental oversight, or the lack thereof. It is a story that illuminates the enduring questions of what we are willing to sacrifice for progress and what remains when the industries that built communities begin to unravel them. This book offers an unflinching look at the costs of industry and the resilience of a community fighting to understand its own past and future.