"The Big Overwhelming Cup"

In the Book, "The Big Overwhelming Cup", author C. Jean-Baptiste tells the story of a small town in North Dakota, and its early citizens who settled there after World War II, and concentrates on the following era of the late 1970's early 1980's when the "white flight" drew a mass of new tax payers to the city. The book begins a detailed description of H. V. Mueller, a prominent business man in the community, who had managed the local general store for over 30 years and handed operations over to his son Ev. It is the relationship between Ev, and his son Vincent, which Jean-baptise concentrates on for the most of the book which in and of itself is a rather dull affair. Capturing the disagreement between father and son, Ev sells the general store off to a local grocery chain during the Russian grain embargo when the price of wheat and other commodities where inflating the price of goods, making business more difficult. Jean-Baptiste's stylized narration of a inner city family's woes is told in parallel, and how the effects of the white flight, and food prices affects the Black family. Eventually the book intermingles the two stories, and It is at this time when Vincent, who lusts for his mother, gouges his eyes out after his father Ev is burned in a fatal tractor accident.